Non Trek Fic: Lawndale and Sandi Griffin's Genie

Lawndale and Sandi Griffin’s GeniePrologueLawndale, Pennsylvania, United States of AmericaWednesday, February 17 1999
It was a bright sunny day in Lawndale, a not-so-typical American town-suburb. Almost no-one knew what was going to happen that afternoon. Those that did know had been preparing for the upcoming events for the last three months. It was an event that would set off a chain of events that bring about massive changes to the town (or suburb, though Lawndale was certainly separate from the nearby settlements, many of which also considered themselves towns).

Only a minority of people knew what was about to happen that afternoon, after school had finished for the day.

Lawndale High School was the domain of Angela Li, a dictator of a Principal, who tended to put security above other concerns, like the budget for the maintenance of the school’s buildings. However, even she was not aware of the secret meeting that was taking place beneath the school during the last period of the school day.

The attendees of the meeting were students, who had been excused from class for a variety of reasons, and two or three teachers who didn’t have a class for that period...

“Now, does everyone understand what you need to do?” the convener of the meeting, who stood in a shadow that the meagre lights of the room did not reach, asked.

“Yes!” the teachers, and most of the students, said enthusiastically.

“Yes, Of course I do. There was no need for the repetition,” the remaining student said. As she had been sitting separately from everyone else, she quickly exited the room.

“Excellent! Meeting is adjourned,” the convener said.

The students who attended the meeting then returned to their classes via various secret passageways beneath the school buildings, re-emerging into the corridors, or the basement, where Li’s cameras had blind spots.

The last of the students whom had attended the secret meeting had returned to their classes 20 minutes before school finished for the day.

Sandi Griffin, sophomore and President of the school’s Fashion Club (and who had not attended the secret meeting), did not know as she exited the school’s front entrance what role she would play in the history making events over the next few weeks.

“Quinn, where were you?” Sandi turned to the source of the question. It was two of the other members of the Fashion Club, Quinn Morgendorffer and Stacy Rowe.

“I was in the bathroom, Stacy,” Quinn said.

“For half an hour?” That is a very long time, even for you, Quinn,” Stacy said, not entirely convinced.

Sandi had to interrupt, something was happening that she might take advantage of.

Sandi could tell that her Vice-President rival was lying, but she saw that Stacy believed her. To accuse Quinn now could cause problems within the Fashion Club for the rest of the month, Sandi reasoned.
“I suppose so, even though the time table change was 3 weeks ago,” Sandi said.

“Thank you, Sandi,” Quinn said.

“Besides, I have misread my timetable many times,” Stacy said, in support of Quinn.

“Thanks, Stacy,” Quinn said.

Sandi talked to Quinn, Stacy and the fourth Fashion Club member, Tiffany Blum-Deckler, for about ten minutes before heading home. Her thoughts were full of plans for the months ahead, regarding school, and the Fashion Club. ‘I hope that Quinn’s weird sister will not interfere,’ she thought as she turned into her street. Little did she know that all her plans would come to naught.

After an hour of looking at fashion websites (such as they were in ‘99) Sandi went out to her backyard. After a minute of observing her two brothers playing she noticed a glint in the grass. She went over and picked it up. It was an emerald. “How did we not notice this before?” she asked herself. She took it to her bedroom.

When she had placed the emerald on her bedside table, her phone rang. She quickly forgot about the Emerald, as she talked to Tiffany about her choices of clothes for a party on Friday night.

After her conversation with Tiffany she did some homework. She did not give the emerald another thought until the next morning.

Thursday, February 18 1999
Sandi awoke early, around 6:45, from a nightmare. “What a dream,” she said. She did not remember many details. She did however remember the emerald and picked it up as she climbed out of bed. The emerald looked dirtier in the early morning light than it had the previous afternoon. “I need to get the dirt off,” she said. She began rubbing it.

What happened next was entirely unexpected. It frightened her much more than the nightmare did.

The Emerald lit up! Sandi dropped it in shock, collapsing back onto her bed. “Eep!”
There was static on the radio, where there had been a clear signal from one of Lawndale’s local FM stations (but not Z93) only a moment before. The bedroom light was flashing on and off. Then many swirls of light emanated from the emerald.
Sandi had recovered herself enough to think ‘What is happening?’

Then, there, in the centre of the room impossibility occurred. What appeared to be a normal teenage girl, much like Sandi herself appeared, appearing to coalesce out of the swirls of light. She had medium length dark blonde hair, about the length of Sandi’s, and grey eyes that showed a much greater age than her looks implied.

Sandi fainted.

A while later Sandi came to. The stranger was sitting on her chair at her study desk, where the accoutrements of the previous night’s homework session were, undisturbed by the stranger.

“Like, who are you?” Sandi asked, with fear, rather than the usual haughtiness, showing in her voice.

“I am sorry for the fright that I have given you. I am a genie. You may call me Jeannie, or Jean for short.”

Sandi didn’t know what to believe, genies were the stuff of fairy tales and Disney movies.

“Say that again, a genie who grants wishes?” Sandi asked, her voice showing scepticism similar to that of Quinn’s sister, not that she would ever admit that fact.

“Yes, I grant your wishes. If you are holding the emerald in some way when you wish for something out loud it will be granted. The number of wishes is without limit.”

Sandi didn’t know what to think. One thing was certain, if her parents discovered Jean in the room, she would be in trouble.

“I wish that my family would remember that you are staying here on exchange,” Sandi said, hoping that that it was a wish that Jean was capable of granting.

They were out in the kitchen in slightly less than 10 minutes, a record for Sandi. Sandi was wearing her usual outfit; whereas Jean was wearing one of Sandi’s other outfits...

Breakfast was tense.

Lawndale High School 8:30
Sandi and Jean were dropped off by Linda in front of the school. “We’re early; Stacy and Tiffany do not arrive until 8:45. Quinn usually arrives five minutes after that.” Sandi said after her mother had driven off.

Jean stopped short of the front entrance. “Aren’t you forgetting something Sandi?” she asked.

“What have I forgotten?” Sandi asked.

“I am not enrolled. I am not in the school’s records!” Jean said. Sandi mused on this. Ms Li would very quickly find out that someone was at the school, who was not supposed to be there.

“Good point,” Sandi conceded. “I wish that you were in all the relevant records at the school.”
Jean granted the wish, repeating the gesture from earlier, with the same sound.

“The person making the wish, and anyone in the immediate vicinity,” Jean said, as she entered the school building herself. Sandi could see that she was holding some information back, but figured that she would find out soon enough.

“Where are we going?” Jean asked.

“The Library. It is, like, open before homeroom on Thursdays. I would like to see if there is any information there about genies in history,” Sandi said.

“Ok,” Jean said, not sure what Sandi’s motives would be in such a project. They passed the Cafeteria and then went out into the quad towards the library.

Once in the Library, Sandi looked around and made sure that there weren’t any ‘popular’ people there who could identify her. She saw no one whom she recognised. She then went over to the cataloguing computers.

“These are new,” Jean said, looking at the computers.

“Were there not any computers the last time you were out of the emerald?” Sandi asked, wondering how long Jean had been in the emerald.

“They did exist, but they were not advanced enough to be used as a cataloguing system in a High School Library,” Jean said. She was in awe at the advancement of technology...

“Interesting,” Sandi said. She then thought of how they could be easier used. She decided that voice recognition would be interesting to have ‘At least that is what it is called in those shows that Stacy watches,’ she thought. She grabbed the emerald, which was on a necklace that she was wearing. ‘Good thing that its green matches that of my eyes,’ she thought.

“I wish that the computers in the school will be able to be controlled by voice, and that they would have the components necessary for that to work,” she said.

“This will take a few moments,” Jean said. She closed her eyes and concentrated as she and the emerald scanned all the computers in the school. (She had been aware of them earlier after Sandi had wished for her to be on the enrolment records, but now she needed to understand them better.)

After scanning the hardware and the software of every computer in the school and then understanding all of them, she was ready. She granted Sandi’s wish. A barely visible ripple emanated out from Jean and the emerald, carrying the wish granting sound with it. As it struck each computer in the school it changed them, giving them microphones, speakers and voice recognition software compatible with the operating system that the particular computers were running.
Where there wasn’t enough hard drive space, the wave increased the capacity of the drive to compensate. All the computers in the school were affected, from the more recent Pentium II’s running Windows 98 and iMacs running MacOS 8.5, through to the 386’s running Windows 3.11 and Macintosh II’s running System 7.5. Jean also placed some ‘Easter Eggs’ on many of the computers...

“The wish is granted,” Jean said, once the conversion processes were complete.

“I would have thought that it would have been quicker,” Sandi said.

“The bigger the wish, the longer it takes to be completed,” Jean said. Sandi gave this some thought. “I suppose so,” she said. She lead Jean over to the closest of the cataloguing computers.

“Catalogue: Like, show me the listings for any books containing information on genie legends,” she said. After a few seconds the database software returned Sandi’s query. There were 3 books.

“Cool,” she said. She took out a notepad from her purse and wrote down the Dewey Decimal numbers that had come up.

“Let’s go,” she said to Jean as she went towards the first relevant section of the bookshelves.

However, Sandi did not know that the School Librarian, Michaela Daniels, had seen and heard everything after her wish for the computers to be able to be controlled by voice.

As Sandi and Jean walked into the midst of the non-fiction section she ran what happened through her mind. Sandi’s wish, Jean’s response and gesture, the wish granting noise, the ripple carrying the wish granting noise, a different noise coming from the computers in the library as they were altered and Sandi ordering books via voice... She came to the conclusion that Jean was a genie (though she still didn’t know her name).

Meanwhile at the front of the school, Stacy Rowe and Tiffany Blum-Deckler had arrived. “Whe-ere is Sand-di?” Tiffany asked after a minute of looking for her.

“I don’t know,” Stacy said. ‘Maybe she is late,’ she thought. Tiffany reached into her handbag and took out her cell phone.

“Oh Yea-ah,” Tiffany said, as she dialled the Griffin’s home phone number.

“Hello; you have reached the Griffin’s Residence, we are not at home now. Would you please leave a message,” came the recording of Linda’s voice from the Griffin’s answering machine.

Stacy looked at Tiffany. “We will wait for Quinn. She will know what to do,” she said.

“Oh Yea-ah,” Tiffany said. She placed her cell phone back into her handbag and took out a mirror. Stacy sighed.

Back in the library Sandi was talking to Elias Howarth, whom she had dated a couple of times.
“...Like, I am looking for a book for class. Mr DeMartino gave me a C on my last test. My Mom insists that I keep a B average,” Sandi said after Elias had asked why Sandi was in the library. ‘And most of it is true,’ Sandi mused. Linda did insist that she had moderately good grades and Mr DeMartino had given her a C on her last test.

“That is fine, Sandi. It’s not like you’re a brain, like a certain Junior I have often run into,” Elias said.

‘While dating Quinn no doubt,’ Sandi thought.

“Anyway, who is this new friend?” Elias asked.

“Hi Elias. I am Jean Jenner. I am on exchange from Britain, staying with the Griffins. It seems that I have picked up the American accent well.”

“Interesting. If you are available at Recess I would like to find out more,” Elias said.

“Sure,” Jean said. Elias said goodbye to Sandi and left.

“He is a little geeky, but, like, his cuteness makes up for that geekiness,” Sandi said. She then found the first of the books that she was looking for. She grabbed it from the bookshelf...

Meanwhile Quinn Morgendorffer had arrived at school. She had walked up to Stacy and Tiffany and asked; “Where’s Sandi?”

“We-e Do-on’t kno-ow,” Tiffany said.

“I thought that maybe you would know,” Stacy said. Quinn thought for a few seconds.

“Something may have come up. I am sure that we’ll see in her in class,” she said.

“Oh Yea-ah.”

“That is a good idea, Quinn,” Stacy said. The three friends then went into the school.

Michaela had gone to the CD-ROM reference computer and had started to use the voice recognition software. Elias noticed her and went over to her. He was quite sure that even if voice recognition software existed that the school wouldn’t be able to afford it. “Since when do we have computers with voice recognition software?” he asked, the curiosity showing in his voice.

“I am as confused as you are,” Michaela said.

“Really?” Elias asked, surprised that the librarian would admit that.

“You have met Sandi’s new friend?” Michaela asked. Elias nodded in the affirmative and she continued, “She could be some kind of genie. I think I heard Sandi wish for the computers to change.” She also explained Jean’s body language and the strange sounds.

“That is only a possibility. There could be others,” Elias said. He was uncertain. A genie could explain at lot of things. “I will investigate Jean, that is the name that she gave me, and I’ll get back to you,” he continued.

“That would be a good idea,” Michaela said. Elias went over to the Cataloguing computers.

Ted Dewitt-Clinton was already at the cataloguing computers, looking something up. Elias could see that Sandi and Jean were out of sight, somewhere in a distant corner of the library. He decided to tell Ted the librarian’s suspicions.

“Ted? Have you seen Sandi Griffin this morning?” he asked.

“Why do you ask?” Ted asked, curiously.

“She had this person with her. It wasn’t one of her usual Fashion Club friends,” Elias said.

“Yes. I did see her and someone else enter the library earlier,” Ted said.

“Anyway, Ted, Mrs Daniels thinks that that person is a genie,” Elias said, hoping that Ted did know what a genie was.

“You mean a genie like one in the old Arabian tales, or like the more recent Disneyfied versions? Why would she think that?” Ted mused.

“The computers in the library can suddenly respond to voice commands,” Elias said to Ted. Then to the computer “Computer: List all works by JRR Tolkien.”

Ted gave Elias a dubious look as he gave his answer but then he looked at the screen.

Code:

AUTHOR SEARCH: JRR Tolkien
Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring TOLK 5 copies
Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers TOLK 5 copies
Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King TOLK 5 copies
Lord of the Rings: Omnibus Edition TOLK 4 copies
The Hobbit TOLK 6 copies
The Silmarillion TOLK 2 copies
The Unfinished Tales TOLK 1 copy

“Amazing!” Ted said, more at the computer having voice recognition software, rather than the school having multiple copies of most of the Middle Earth Legendarium, although he appreciated the latter too.

“See?” Elias asked. He already knew that the library had multiple copies of LOTR.

“Ok. Possibly, I will look into it,” Ted said, thinking that there could be other reasons why the computers suddenly had voice recognition software.

“Cool. I will do so as well, but we have to be discrete about it,” Elias said.

“No problem there,” Ted said. Then the bell rang. They quickly left the library, not knowing that Sandi had heard most of their conversation.

“Gee, Jean, I hope that they will not, like, confirm their suspicions,” she said.

“You could have made a subtler wish,” Jean said. Sandi placed the book she had been reading down next to the cataloguing computer, glancing at the Tolkien list.

“Maybe, but now I have lost track of time. Quinn could be turning Stacy and Tiffany against me,” Sandi said.

Jean had turned a corner when Sandi had made her wish. The wish granting noise emanated around her. “You didn’t need to make that wish Sandi!” she muttered. Even so, she gained the extra knowledge about Ms Li’s personality. ‘That may be useful in future,’ she thought.

Ms Li looked up from the paperwork strewn on her desk as Jean entered her office. “Jean Jenner reporting as requested, Ms Li,” she said.

“Good!” Ms Li said. She picked up a piece of paper “It says here that you are billeted with the Griffins. Is that correct?”

“Yes it is,” Jean said.

“Why didn’t you report here as soon as you arrived at school?”

“I got carried away talking with Sandi, Ma’am.”

“I can believe that, your transgression was minor. But you still need to submit to a psychological test before returning to class,” Ms Li said. She pressed a button on the intercom. “Ms Manson, please report to the Principal’s Office!”

“Great, a psychological test!” Jean said.

“It is nothing to be worried about. And Welcome to Lawndale High,” Ms Li said, saying the school’s name in a reverential manner.

20 minutes later Jean was walking back to Mr DeMartino’s classroom. “Stupid Psychological test! It’s a good thing she didn’t think that I have low self-esteem!” she muttered. She was sure it would be time for the next class shortly after she got back. She decided to have some fun...

The security cameras in the west half of the school all failed! ‘That will have Ms Li in an uproar,’ Jean thought.

Jean arrived back at Mr DeMartino’s classroom 5 minutes before the end of the period.

After another period, it was recess.

Elias came up to Jean, where she sat near where Sandi and a large group of other girls, including the rest of the Fashion Club, were talking near the rear of the library.

“Can I talk with you away from the others?” he asked, with more than a hint of curiosity in his voice.

“Sure, absolutely,” she said. They walked away from the group of girls, towards the Home Economics/Music block.

“I have a hypothesis related to the fact that with the strange events that happened in the library this morning and the fact that all of the school’s computers can suddenly be controlled by voice,” Elias said.

“What is your hypothesis?” Jean asked. She was hoping that Elias was going where she was thinking he was going.

“That there is some kind of magic involved, almost certainly some kind of genie,” Elias said.

“I will tell you the truth, Elias. Although I am certain that Sandi will be angry,” Jean began. Elias looked concerned.

“I’ll tell you since you are curious,” Jean said, with a laugh. “There was magic in the school this morning with the computers changing. There is a genie in the school,” she hesitated. “And I am that genie.” She knew that Elias had to find out, regardless of how Sandi felt about the matter. She didn’t know what the repercussions would be if Elias didn’t find out about her within the next day.

Elias was then in thought. “Were you always a genie? Or did you become one somehow?” he asked.

“Good question. I will answer it. Approximately 2000 years ago, I was born as a normal human, and then one day soon after my 15th birthday I became a genie and I found myself in the Emerald,” Jean said.

“Is that all?” Elias asked.

“There is a more complex answer but that would take a lot longer to explain,” Jean said.

“Here is another question; how many people have had wishes granted by you?” Elias asked. He was still curious, though Jean’s answer to his earlier question had him trying to think about the repercussions of such an event.

“Sandi is the 2225th,” Jean said.

‘That is a large number,’ Elias thought. He asked something else though. “Are there any other genies that you are aware of?”

Jean answered that she had seen 6 others since the fall of the Roman Empire. Elias talked to her for a short while more before leaving to eat his recess by himself. However Sandi had overheard most of what had been said.

“Why did you tell him?” she asked, with anger in her voice.

“He asked if I was a genie and I had to tell him the truth,” Jean, who wanted to be honest with Elias for her own reasons, said.

“Do not tell anyone else!” Sandi fumed. ‘Elias may now want Jean for himself!’ she thought.

“There is a genie in the school,” Jean said. She was thinking that there was a way around Sandi’s unspoken wish that she not be identified as the genie if someone asked about what was happening.

“There may be, like, a genie in the school, but Jean is not it!” Sandi said. ‘Of course Jean would say that there is a genie. She has been very mischievous this morning,’ she thought.

Torii was in thought for a second. “Sandi, I am going to look for this genie. Come on Brooke, we will look for it,” she said.

Brooke Peters followed Torii away from the group.

After Torii and Brooke had gone, Ted approached Elias from the direction of the Science block.

“I haven’t found the genie yet, Elias, but I will keep looking,” he said. Ted was taking the events in stride; he had heard rumours of strange events in history that could have been caused by rather unusual forces.

“I have found her, Ted,” Elias said, having decided to fill Ted in on what he had discovered regarding the genie.

“Who is it?” Ted asked, almost whispering.

“Jean, whom was with Sandi in the library earlier,” Elias said, not quite so quietly. Indeed, Sandi overheard! She was quite annoyed with Elias. She came stomping over and said; “You are going to regret this, Elias!”

Jean came over “Calm down, Sandi. Elias, Ted, please do not inform anyone else about my nature. They are going to find out soon enough,” she said.

“What do you mean, Jean?” Sandi asked, fuming, but trying to keep her voice down.

“Events are going to get out of control, regardless of what you do, Sandi. That is what always happens,” Jean said.

“Whatever!” Sandi said, dismissing Jean’s comment.

“I am going to tell Mrs Danielson. But not anyone else,” Ted said. “See you, Elias, Jean and Sandi,” he then left going into one of the buildings.

“I hope no one else has overheard,” Sandi said.

“I wouldn’t count on it,” Elias said.

“I heard that!” Sandi said.

“Tisk, Tisk, Sandi. You haven’t counted on my mischievousness. I don’t need to grant a wish to do magic!” Jean said.

“What!” Sandi said.

“For instance, I can do, this!” Jean blinked and Sandi started to float up into the air!

“Jean! People can see!” Sandi shouted.

“Exactly!” Jean said, laughing.

“Why iis Sand-di float-ting?” Tiffany asked in the background.

Sandi started producing lighting around her fingers. “Your feeble powers are no match for mine, Sandi,” Jean said.

“Oohf!” Sandi exclaimed, grabbing at the emerald. “I wish that you would let me down!” she said.

“As you wish!” Jean said, she didn’t really want Sandi to reveal her own powers, ‘though I am sure that most didn’t notice,’ she thought. She granted the wish. Sandi fell down, though landing gracefully.

“I thought you said that Jean wasn’t a genie!” Andrea Hecuba said.

“As what just happened shows, yes. Like I would have admitted it without that happening, but what are you doing here?” Sandi asked.

“I was reading here. I usually read here. No one notices the Goth Chick!” Andrea said.

“Indeed, your outfit is worse than that of that girl who lives with Quinn!” Sandi said.

“That is certainly true,” Quinn said in the background.

“Tell me about it!” Stacy said.

“Tha-at Jac-ket aand tho-ose boots, soo wro-ong!” Tiffany said.

“Most of the ‘popular’ people in the school now know, Sandi!” Jean said.

‘And who knows who Andrea could tell, certainly most of the unpopular students,’ Sandi thought. “You want me to make a wish?” She asked.

“Make one, or there will be more mischievousness,” Jean said.

‘Oh the irony, my own trickery turned against me,’ Sandi thought. “I wish that an extra floor would appear on the top of the Science Block!”

“As you wish, You keep wishing big though,” Jean said. She granted the wish. With the usual wish related sounds, and an additional sound similar to that of Autobots (or Decepticons) changing shape, the Lawndale High science block gained an additional floor...

One of the other students ran off to find Torii and Brooke...

Most of the other students began running around in a panic. Sandi facepalmed, as Quinn, Tiffany and Andrea looked at the situation impassively and Stacy fainted. Jean and Elias wondered if the situation was out of control...

It was halfway through recess, and the news was spreading through the student population of Lawndale High, although invariably Chinese Whispers took its toll on the accuracy of the message.

Daniela Gray found Torii and Brooke, in a girl’s bathroom near the assembly hall. “Here you are!” she said.

“What is happening, Daniela?” Torii asked.

“Sandi was lying! Jean is a genie. She made Sandi float in the air...” Daniela said.

“Are you sure?” Brooke asked.

“Yes!” Daniela said.

“How do I know that it isn’t you that is lying?” Brooke asked.

“Come and see for yourself!” Daniela said. Brooke reluctantly followed Daniela and Torii back to where Sandi and Jean were.

“How did the Science Block get an extra floor?” the head Science teacher Janet Barch asked as she exited the library.

“There is a genie in the school. That is the source of the trouble,” Andrea said. She wanted an adult to know, regardless of the consequences.

“I suppose, that is one explanation, what with the computers and all,” Ms Barch said. Andrea had already heard about the computers.

“I don’t know. This is completely outside our experience. I hope that Sandi has the wisdom not to abuse the power that the genie is giving her,” Mrs Danielson said.

“Me too,” Ted said.

Outside the library, Daniela, Torii and Brooke arrived on the scene. Most of the previously panicking students had dispersed. Quinn was helping Stacy to calm down. Tiffany was looking around clueless. Andrea and Ms Barch were still conversing. Sandi and Elias were sitting near each other with ponderous looks on their faces. Jean was standing between them, waiting...
‘Why is it that Sandi gets the genie?’ Brooke thought to herself. ‘She is the President of the Fashion Club. She won’t let me in the Fashion Club. I should be in the Fashion Club!” She then decided to grab the emerald off Sandi!

“Give me that emerald, Sandi Griffin!” she shouted, and charged...

Sandi saw what was happening. “I wish I was, like, somewhere else in the school!” she said, rapidly. Jean blinked, and Sandi vanished.

“That was not a good idea, Brook Peterson! If you had touched, Sandi, you would have gotten detention!” Ms Barch said.

“Sorry, Ms Barch,” Brooke said.

“You should apologise to Sandi, not me,” Ms Barch said.

Then the end of recess bell rang. Everyone went to class.

In the rush to get to class no one noticed two squirrels jump from a tree in the quad onto the Industrial Arts Block. The two squirrels then left the school to the west.

Sandi had appeared underwater in the school’s swimming pool. She came up for air, spluttering. She still had the emerald, although Jean was nowhere to be seen. She was quite angry at being dunked when all she wanted was to escape Brooke’s attempt to fight her for the emerald. Then the bell rang. ‘Great! I’ll be late to class,’ she thought. She grabbed the emerald. “I wish I was in class,” she said.

“Oh, dear, where is Sandi?” Mr O’Neill asks. He was absolutely clueless about what had been happening in the previous half hour.

“No idea, Mr O’Neill,” Quinn said. Then the whole room was filled with water, as Sandi and the water appeared in a distorted version of the normal wish granting noise.

Sandi noticed that the door of the classroom was shut. She attempted to wish the water away, but all that came out of her mouth were bubbles. ‘Great! I need to be out of water to speak a wish!’ she thought, and then wondered about how to get out of the situation before everyone drowned. She then saw Jean, who appeared to be enjoying herself in the water filled classroom. ‘Ah, now everyone will almost drown!’ Sandi thought.
She then noticed Jamie White and Jeffy Brown; two of those football players who usually attended to Quinn’s every whim, attempting to open two of the windows. ‘That is one way to avoid drowning. She concentrated on the windows. The telekinetic aspects of her powers assisted Jamie and Jeffy’s efforts. The windows then opened.

The water rushed out of the classroom. Sandi noticed that 5 of the students including Joey Green and Tiffany were swept out. ‘It is a good thing that this classroom is on the ground floor,’ she thought. Seconds later the water level was down to the level of the bottom of the windows.

“Sandi!” Quinn yelled.

Tiffany Blum-Deckler was preparing herself for the arduous Language Arts lesson ahead when she suddenly realised that the classroom was full of water. ‘Why is all this strange stuff happening today,’ she thought, at a pace quicker than that of her speech. She noticed that Sandi was in her seat, which had been vacant a few moments before. ‘And why is Sandi appearing out of thin air/water, water/air?’ she thought again. Sandi was glaring at her Exchange Student housemate, Jean.
‘Jean does have something to do with what happened at recess,’ she thought, as she was attempting to hold her breath. She saw Jamie and Jeffy, who usually did stuff for Quinn, attempting to open the windows. They then opened them. ‘Oh no!’ she thought as she started going out of the window. ‘I should not have stood up!’

Tiffany roused herself. She was shivering, lying on the ground in a puddle outside of the Language Arts classroom. She barely heard Quinn yell at Sandi.

“Are you ok, Tiffany?” It was Joey Green.

“I’m Free-ezing, and my hair is ru-uined,” she said. She wasn’t actually sure that her hair was ruined, but that usually happened if she got dunked. She was also surprised that Joey actually gave her any concern, as he usually hung around Quinn with Jamie and Jeffy, competing with them for her attention. Her dates usually didn’t go well, because they usually got bored of her slow monotone. She sat up. ‘As opposed to the not-so-monotone ‘brainy’ voice of Quinn’s sister,’ she thought. Joey then leapt back into the classroom.
She stood up and observed what happened next through the window.

Joey Green had opened his book of David Copperfield, when suddenly the room filled with water. ‘What the heck?’ he thought as he stood up. He looked towards Quinn. She seemed to be handling herself, indeed she seemed to be glaring at Sandi. ‘She wasn’t there before. Indeed I heard Quinn tell Mr O’Neill that she didn’t have any idea where Sandi was.’ He thought. He didn’t have much time to ponder this before he was washed out of the classroom...

Next thing he knew he was lying on the ground. He got up and saw Tiffany lying in a puddle.

“Are you ok, Tiffany?” he asked.

“I’m Free-ezing, and my hair is ru-uined,” Tiffany said. ‘At least that is all she is worried about,’ he thought. He waited for a little while and then she sat up. He then thought of Quinn and leapt back into the classroom, causing a splash.

Jeffy Brown was looking over at Quinn when the water appeared. ‘This is not good!’ he thought. He noticed that the water was not going down. He swam over to the closest window. He tried to open it, without success. ‘Come on!’ he thought. He gave it more tries and it eventually opened. 10 seconds later the water was down to the level of the bottom of the windows.

“Sandi!” Quinn yelled.

“Oh, dear!” Mr O’Neil said, trying to make sense of what had just happened.

‘It is not my fault, Quinn. It is Jean’s!” Sandi said.

“What do you mean?” Mr O’Neill asked.

“I am a mischievous Genie,” Jean said.

‘That certainly explains this happening and those rumours at recess,’ Jeffy thought as he and Elias went over to the door to open it.

“But Genie’s don’t exist,” Mr O’Neill said.

“But, how would you explain what just happened?” Stacy asked.

“I don’t have an explanation,” Mr O’Neill said.

The door wouldn’t budge. “Great, the pressure has the door locked!” Elias said. ‘So the reason why we want to open the door is the same reason we can’t open it?’ Jeffy thought.

‘And again, my powers save the day,’ Sandi thought. She then applied barely sufficient pressure on the other side of the door to allow it to open. Then the rest of the water cascaded out of the classroom and into the corridor outside, taking with it some chairs and many very soggy books.
‘I never have used my powers so much in one day,’ she thought, thankful that her brothers did not also inherit powers from their mother.

“Given what has just happened, class is dismissed!” Mr O’Neill said.

“Great!” Elias said.

“Our outfits are ruined, what are we supposed to do for the next forty minutes?” Quinn asked.

‘That is a good observation, Quinn.’ Jeffy thought. He looked out of the door, both ways. The corridor was waterlogged. “And the corridor outside is all wet, we’d all slip!” he said.

In Ms Li’s office, Ms Li changed a camera view and saw the pool empty. “What!” she said. ‘Nobody can empty that pool without my knowledge!’ she thought. She then expertly changed the output from that camera to a different tape and then rewound the tape. She didn’t see Sandi in the pool in the rewind, the water suddenly reappeared. She then presses play. There was a minute of nothing and then Sandi appeared in the pool.

“Ms Griffin! But how?” Ms Li asked herself. She checked the timestamps as she rewound and reviewed Sandi appearing. She saw that there is no time skip. ‘This is definitely related to the rumoured events of recess and the computers suddenly acting up,’ she thought. She continued watching, and then sees Sandi and the water disappear. “Something is definitely happening. Something is causing havoc in my school! I want to know what is going on!” she said.

Back in Mr O’Neill’s classroom they were still blaming Sandi.

“Like, Quiet, all of you! Let me explain,” Sandi said.

“This had better be good, Sandi,” Quinn said, shivering.

“You were there when I wished to be elsewhere in the school,” Sandi stated.

“Yes!” Quinn said.

“I wa-as the-ere,” Tiffany said from where she was leaning against the window from outside.

“Right, Brooke was going to fight me for the emerald, so I wished to be elsewhere in the school, but then I appeared in the pool!” Sandi said.

“I knew I was going to be late to class, so I wished to be in class. The rest is obvious,” Sandi said.

Mr O’Neill was blubbering in the background. “Why did my class have to be the one interrupted by a mischievous genie?” he was saying.

“Well, this period is a bust,” Elias said.

“But now we’re soaked! Our outfits and classwork are ruined, and the corridor outside is now very slippery!” Quinn said.

“Quinn is right,” Stacy said.

“Right!” Sandi said, grabbing the emerald. She then wished that the water lying on the floor of the classroom and the corridors would go back into the pool.

Half of the water appeared back in the pool.

“The floor is now dry, but we are still wet!” Quinn said.

“Our outfits are ruined!” Stacy said, as miserable as Mr O’Neill.

“And our work is ruined also,” Elias said.

“I was getting to that!” Sandi said. She then wished that the people in the room and just outside the window would be dry, that their clothes and hair would be as if they hadn’t been wet and that the books, stationary, etc would also be dry. Jean also granted that wish.

The students then looked as they did when they had entered the classroom.

“The class is still a bust!” Elias said.

“Not much can be done about that, Elias. I am now, like going to continue my research from this morning. Come Jean,” Sandi said. She and Jean quickly left the classroom. Mr O’Neill was still blubbering, although Quinn was calming Stacy down. Elias helped Tiffany in through the window.

“What now?” Stacy asked Quinn.

“We will wait here until the period is finished. We need to figure out what to do about the situation with Sandi and Jean,” Quinn said.

“Good idea,” Elias said.

For the rest of the period, instead of Language Arts, the group of sophomores went through various scenarios involving Sandi and Jean. They liked none of them. They were still discussing as they went to their next classes.

Ms Li was still fuming later in the period, having not discovered the happening in the Language Arts classroom. Indeed she was mostly fretting about the failure of the cameras in the west half of the school. She had called in several electricians to look at the failures...
(She had taken notes on Sandi’s appearing and disappearing, but did not notice when half of the water had appeared back in the pool.)

Sandi and Jean arrived at the library without incident. Sandi picked up her earlier book from where she had left it and continued to read. When the period was over, she went to her next class...

The two squirrels whom had observed the recess events arrived in an oak tree in the back yard of a two story red brick house on Glen Oaks Lane.
“You are early from your patrol! Report!” another squirrel said, in the Lawndale squirrel dialect.

“There was a non-normative event at the place that the Humans call Lawndale High School,” one of the squirrels said, giving a high pitched impression of Ms Li when saying ‘Lawndale High’.

“Non-normative?” the previous squirrel said.

Both squirrels described Sandi floating in the air and later disappearing. The other squirrel is in thought. “Thankyou, I’ll inform the Emperor. Remain here and wait until the 2 junior humans return and then infiltrate the house,” he said.

An hour later, the senior squirrel arrived at a large oak tree in a small forest just to the west of Lawndale’s suburban fringe. A large group of squirrels appeared from behind nearby vegetation.
“Password?” a large gruff squirrel asked. The new arrival gave the password he had been given, and then was escorted into a tunnel that lead into the large tree’s root system.

A minute later he was high up in the tree, the heart of the VarmittanEmpire, the squirrel polity that dominated the area around Lawndale.

“Report Captain Javwi,” said the commander of the Varmittan forces.

“A Non-Normative Event has occurred at Lawndale High School,” Captain Jaywi said, repeating the high pitched impression of Ms Li from earlier.

The Commander of the Varmittan forces remembered Edict 004 ‘All Non-Normative Events are to be reported to the Emperor’ and so allowed Captain Jaywi audience with the Emperor.

Captain Jaywi reported the events at Lawndale High as he had heard from his two patrol officers and his orders to the same. The Emperor was then in thought.

“This Non-Normative Event is serious. I have to check the archives to be sure, but I think that this human female may have had found what is termed a ‘genie’,” the Emperor said.

“Orders, Your Majesty?” Captain Jaywi asked.

“Return to the Glen Oaks post. I will send relevant information if it is found,” the Emperor said.

As he left the Palace-Tree Captain Jaywi reflected on the rumours of a Non-Normative Event that may had occurred the previous fall, something to do with ‘Holidays’. There was definitely a reason why the Empire kept a constant guard post at the rear of the ‘Good Time Chinese Restaurant’...

He returned to the Glen Oaks post an hour later.

Ms Li was talking to one of the electricians. “The cameras in the Industrial Arts Block are all working again. The power wires had somehow been severed. I certainly haven’t seen anything like it,’ he said.

“Thank you, Mr Wallace. How soon would it be until the cameras in the Science Block are repaired?” Ms Li said.

“They should be repaired by the end of the school day, but there appears to be an extra floor that is not in the blueprints,” Wallace said.

“Yes. Weird stuff has been happening, but that is not your concern,” Ms Li, whom had been informed of the appearance of the extra floor by Ms Barch, said. (However Ms Barch hadn’t told Ms Li everything that Andrea had said.)

“Ok then, the cameras on all of the floors will be working by the end of the school day,” Wallace said. He exited the office to go back to work.
‘All the cameras will be working. Maybe I can then figure out what is happening today, including with what happened to the pool water, and the report of a splashing sound in the HSIE Block,’ Ms Li thought.

At the end of the school day, Sandi sneaked out of Economics ahead of the rest of the class. She then slowly headed for the exit. However Torii was waiting around a corner...

“Ah, Sandi! Your uber-popularity, and that of Quinn Morgendorffer too, is at an end.

“Gee Torii, I doubt that even a genie can do things to, like, change popularity status with a single wish!” Sandi retorted. “That would be true even of Quinn,” she continued.

“Oh no? I could wish for someone to become obese, or to turn your personality ‘up to eleven’ or to make Quinn more concerned about her grades. You remember ‘Academic Imprisonment’ last year, don’t you Sandi?” Torii asked.

“What of it? Quinn said she found it in the trash!” Sandi said, wondering what Torii was getting at.

Torii laughed. “Tiffany and Stacy may be gullible enough to believe that, but you and I know better!”

“True, What are you getting at, Torii?” Sandi asked.

“Give me the emerald, Sandi!” Torii said.

“No!” Sandi said, backing away.

“Yes! I’m going to change things at Lawndale High!” Torii said. She started to charge at Sandi. Sandi realised she was backed against a wall.

“I wish that time would stop for a while!” she cried out, touching the emerald.

Sandi could then hear the usual wish granting noise, slightly more drawn out than usual. She opened her eyes. Torii was slowing down and her voice was growing deeper. Then she stopped.

Jean walked up. “Well Sandi, time is not actually stopped, but at a crawl,” she said.

“What do you mean?” Sandi asked, glancing at the apparently frozen Torii.

“For every second passing for us, a millisecond is passing for everyone else. The wish has taken effect for a full second after it was fully granted,” Jean said.

“How long would that be?” Sandi asked.

“Fifteen minutes,” Jean said.

“Good, there is plenty of time for me to get far enough away from school. Let’s go Ten Pin Bowling,” Sandi said. She hadn’t been Ten Pin Bowling since Middle School.

“Slow down, Sandi! Your time bubble is exceeding the speed of sound!” Jean yelled, smaller ‘time bubbles’ allowing the soundwaves to travel between their time bubbles.

14 minutes later by Sandi’s reckoning, she and the genie entered Lawndale Ten Pin Bowling Centre.
“Alright, the wish will end its effect in 10 seconds,” Jean said as they approached the lanes and the service counter.

“Whatever,” Sandi said, looking at a ball that was about to knock over the pins.

“5, 4, 3, 2, 1,” Jean said. Then Sandi and Jean re-emerged from the time bubble into the normal space-time continuum. Sandi could see the ball slowly knock over the pins and then the normal bustle of the Ten Pin Bowling Centre could be heard. She then recognised who had bowled that ball, Jane Lane.

Back at the High School, Torii heard a sharp cracking sound, like that of a whip. She saw that Sandi had disappeared into thin air. She slammed into the wall where Sandi had been standing moments before.

‘Great, she could have gone anywhere whilst time was ‘stopped’ she thought. She didn’t consider herself a ‘brain’ but she knew enough to know that time wouldn’t completely stop. ‘I guess that I should go home now,’ she thought. She then started walking out of the school, automatically judging the popularity of the students she saw as she went by. She overheard Quinn and her posse discussing the day’s events as she left the school.

Sandi and Jean had chosen a lane next to Jane and her bowling partner, whose name on the score screen was given as ‘Tom’ (verses Jane’s ‘Janie’).

“I wish for a winning streak,” Sandi said, as she went for her first bowl. (Her and Jean’s names on the score screen were ‘Sandi’ and ‘Jeani’ respectively.) Jean reluctantly granted the wish.

“Your wish is granted!” Jean said.
“Excellent!” Sandi said as she bowled.

Jane looked as Sandi got her second strike on her 4th frame. “She’s good. Suspiciously good!” she told her boyfriend, Tom Sloane.

“What do you mean?” Tom asked.

“That’s Sandi Griffin. She is the President of the Fashion Club. The most physical exertion that she usually does is Power Yoga,” Jane said, remembering the time when she and her best friend videotaped her sister for a class project.

“Isn’t that the group that Daria’s sister is part of?” Tom asked.

“Exactly,” Jane said.

“So it is suspicious?” Tom asked.

“Exactly, I mean, the last time I saw Sandi bowling, we were in Elementary School,” Jane said.

“Sounds like an interesting story,” Tom said.

“Oh it is. Bowl and I’ll tell you,” Jane said, laughing. Tom then took his turn, knocking over 6 pins.

5 years, 9 months earlier“It was my 11th birthday and Trent surprised me by showing up at the front of the Elementary School in the Tank shortly after school had let out. He had gotten his licence 2 months before and had borrowed the Tank for the occasion. He winds down the window. “Happy Birthday, Janie,” he said. I get in and he says that we are going bowling as a birthday treat.

Trent and Jane Lane carry their balls over to the bowling lane that they’re using. “Better than the usual art supplies isn’t it Janie?” Trent asked.

“Penny gave me art supplies, Mom says she will give me my present when I get home. I haven’t heard from the others. Thanks Trent,” Jane said, she hugged him. Trent smiled.

They were bowling their second frame when they see another family set up in the lane next to them – the Griffins, Sandi, her brothers Sam and Chris and their mother, Linda.

“What are you looking at?” Sandi said when she noticed Jane looking at her.

“Nothing,” Jane said and bowled.

5 minutes later, Sandi bowled and missed the pins, twice. She got angry and moodily skulked back to the seats. Linda gave her a look of disapproval. Linda then bowled and got a spair. Sam knocked down 8 pins and Chris managed to knock over 3. In the meantime the Lanes got a higher combined score than all the Griffins combined, including a strike by Trent.

Sandi bowled again and again got a nil score. “Why can’t I, like, hit the pins!” she shouted. She kicked the ball retrieval mechanism.

“Alexandra! Hold your temper!” Linda shouted, with a disapproving look and her hands on her hips.

“Yes, mother!” she said, trying to calm down.

“It’s my turn,”

“No, it’s my turn,” Sam said.

“It’s my turn!” Chris said.

“It’s my turn!” Sam said.

“It is Sam’s turn!” Linda said.

Sandi continued to bowl poorly through the rest of that game. She even got a lower score than her 5 year old brother. She was seething with temper all the while. I heard that she had to go to anger management classes when she was 13. I suspect that is one reason why she has a hold over Quinn and the other two, she doesn’t like losing control.

“There have been rumours of magic occurring at school today,” Jane said.

“Really? Is that all?” Tom asked.

“No, Daria and I overheard Quinn and her trio of admirers talking about a classroom filled with water. Daria made a comment to Quinn about it, and Quinn retorted that it was true, and the three admirers backed her up on it.

“A classroom filled with water?” Tom asked dubiously.

“One of the admirers, I think it was the one whose name Quinn constantly forgets, said that it just appeared,” Jane said.

“Really?” Tom asked, even more dubiously.

“And then there is the extra floor on one of the school buildings. Ms Li would never be able to hide that, no matter how paranoid she is!” Jane said.

“An extra floor on a school building? I suppose that could be proof of magic. So you are saying that Sandi is involved and is somehow enhancing her bowling using this magic?” Tom asked.

“Exactly,” Jane said.

“Any more rumours?” Tom asked. Jane shrugged and bowled her turn, which had been held up whilst she and Tom had been discussing. She then told Tom about the Genie rumours she had heard. They continued talking through their game.

After she had finished bowling Sandi went home and hid the emerald in her room. She stayed there doing her homework until her mother came knocking on the door demanding that she come down for dinner.

Quinn Morgendorffer arrived home at 7:30, having spent the afternoon talking to Stacy, Tiffany, Jeffy, Joey and her other admirer about Sandi and the genie. Their discussions had been inconclusive. ‘One thing is for certain, things are never going to be the same again,’ she thought as she opened her door.
Jake, her father, was watching the television and going on yet another rant about his childhood, whilst her mother, Helen, was on the phone talking to her boss. Slightly depressing Classical music was filtering down the stairs from Daria’s room. She closed the door and smiled. ‘At least things are still normal here,’ she thought.

“Daddy! Your Heart!” she said as she went to her father. His rant was getting serious...

“Hi, Quinn!” he said.

One of the squirrels assigned to the Varmittan Glen Oaks Post saw Quinn enter the living room from his vantage point next to the sliding door. He then went to inform Captain Jaywi that all of the Morgendorffers were home.

“Captain, the entire family are home,” he said, once in the oak tree.

“Good, you and Yogez go down and watch near the kitchen door and listen for information about the Non-Normative Event whilst they have their ‘dinner’,” Captain Jaywi said.

“Yes, Captain!”

10 minutes later, the Morgendorffers were sitting around the table for their usual dinner, micro-waved lasagne.

“Did anything interesting happen at school today?” Helen asked.

“You wouldn’t believe the half of it!” Quinn said.

“Why wouldn’t I believe it, Quinn?” Helen asked.

“’Cause it would sound totally crazy! The events were totally fantastical!” Quinn said.

“Maybe not totally fantastical, but the events at school today were rather close!” Quinn said.

“Fantastical, in what way? What has that Ms Li gotten the student body into now?” Helen asked.

“Mo-om! It has nothing to do with Ms Li!” Quinn said. Helen had a confused look on her face, Quinn was being rather elusive.

“Mom, if one talked about magic, extra floors appearing on school buildings and rumours of pool water in classrooms the listeners would be convinced that the speaker was going crazy, or that they were making up a story. And that is just what I had heard by the end of the day,” Daria said.

“You are right. I would think that someone saying that would be crazy. I also think that is a great idea for one of your stories,” Helen said.

“I wish it was,” Daria said. Helen could tell that her older daughter was telling the truth.

“Quinn, is what Daria is saying true? About magic and extra floors?” Helen asked.

“That wasn’t the half of it. Much more stuff occurred,” Quinn said.

“Isn’t this like a Disney movie?” Jake asked. “Not that I ever got to see a Disney movie when I was a kid! I wanted to see 101 Dalmatians! But no! My Father said that animal and Disney movies were for sissies!”

“Jake!”

“Da-ad!”

“Didn’t we see TheLion King when it finally appeared at Highland’s cinema?”

“Yes, we did, kiddo. Thanks. What were we talking about?”

“Quinn was saying that fantastical events occurred at the High School today,” Helen said.

“Right, I became aware of it when I heard Tiffany ask why Sandi was floating. I then saw that Sandi was floating,” Quinn began. She continued to spill the beans about what had happened at recess and during the following period.

“So Quinn, can anyone else back up this fantastical story?” Helen asked.

“The idea of Sandi Griffin with the power a genie can give her is frightening,” Daria said, her voice showing a trace amount of fear.

“Dar-i-a! Didn’t I say that?” Anyway, Stacy and Tiffany can back me up. So can Jeffy, Joey and Jordan. Mr O’Neill can vouch for the water filled classroom. Then there are the other members of the class. Ms Barch was aware of the extra floor almost from the outset. That Goth chick was present when Sandi was one-upped by the genie. That Ted guy is also aware from Elias telling him...” Quinn began.

“That is enough Quinn,” Helen interrupted. “As soon as we’re finished eating, I’ll be calling the Rowe’s and the Blum-Deckler’s.”

“Ok,” Quinn said.

Helen called the Rowe’s and Stacy filled her in on her point of view of the happenings that day. Stacy corroborated Quinn’s story and gave Helen much more extra information.

Tiffany also corroborated Quinn and Stacy’s stories and gave her extra information (though nowhere near the amount that Stacy did.)

Over an hour later, an almost exhausted Helen clicked off the phone from her conversation with Mr O’Neill. His story and those of Joey, Jeffy and Jamie corroborated with those of Quinn, Stacy and Tiffany.

She briefly considered calling the Griffin’s but decided not to. If the idea of Sandi with a genie was frightening to her older daughter, who wasn’t usually frightened by anything, then the idea of Linda with a genie was even more frightening!

‘There is nothing that can be done about it tonight. Quinn and her friends will have to keep an eye on Sandi tomorrow at school and then tomorrow afternoon I will see if I can get off work and talk to their parents,’ she thought. She hoped that she would be able to get off work, Vitale, Davis, Horowitz, Rhiordan, Shrechter and Shrechter had a large case load, and she wasn’t sure whether she could trust Jake with trying to talk to the other parents. She then went up to bed.

Meanwhile the junior squirrels had reported to Captain Jaywi the information that Quinn had divulged to her family.
“So it is a genie; just as the Emperor suspected!” Captain Jaywi said.

“Yes,” Yogez said. Captain Jaywi was in thought.

“The Emperor has to be informed. This Griffin girl could cause a lot of trouble with that genie,” he said. He then looked at the sky. It was way past sunset and the moon wasn’t visible, it having been the new moon the day before.
“It can wait until the morning though,” he continued. The Varmittan Empire only conducted its business at night if it was an absolute emergency. As serious as the Non-Normative Event sequence appeared, it was still not an absolute emergency.

“We wait until morning?” the other junior squirrel said.

“As soon as most of the stars have disappeared, I will go to the Palace-Tree,” Captain Jaywi said. The two junior squirrels agreed.

The squirrels were not the only eavesdroppers upon the Morgendorffer family’s discussion about the events of the day. A family of sapient mice living in the space between the ceiling of the kitchen and the floorboards of Daria’s bedroom had also overheard their discussion.

After Helen had called Stacy, the mice went into a discussion of their own...

“...this is serious! There hasn’t been a verified genie in Pennsylvania for decades!” one of them said.

“What can be done? It is a human with a genie! It is not like we can just grab it off this ‘Sandi’ person. She’d just wish us away!” one of the other mice said.

“Maybe the Varmittan Squirrels can help us?” another mouse said.

And so the mice argued amongst themselves for over an hour about what to do, before deciding to convene with the other mice of that section of Glen Oaks Lane in the morning.

At 8:30 Stacy Rowe went up to her bedroom. She was tired from her discussion with Quinn’s mother about the events of the day. Her own mother had hardly believed what they were talking about, until she had talked to Helen herself.

Stacy opened her most recent diary and began writing about the events of the day.

If someone had told me yesterday that the events that happened today would happen in the next 24 hours, I would have told them that they were crazy. And yet they have happened and so I am still trying to come to terms with them. I keep expecting to wake up to find out that it was just a dream!
It all started when Tiffany and I arrived at school...

Click to expand...

Arriving at School – Where is Sandi? Waiting for Quinn, looking for Sandi.

Homeroom

Information about meeting Sandi and Jean outside the history classroom.

Summary of History notes

Summary of Mathematics notes

The weird events of recess, beginning with Tiffany’s noticing that Sandi was floating until Sandi’s confrontation with Brooke.

Events of the aborted Language Arts lesson.

Language Arts LessonI thought that the problems caused by Jean’s mischievous nature would not have had continued into the next class. After all she hadn’t caused problems in History or Mathematics. But I was wrong, very wrong. I had got out my copy of Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield and my notebook and then the classroom filled with water!

‘Oh no! Why are Sandi and/or Jean acting like this?’ she thought, beginning to panic. She looked around. She saw that Sandi had appeared and was glaring at Jean. ‘Not entirely her fault then,’ she thought. She also saw Quinn glaring at Sandi. ‘Good, Quinn,’ she thought, feeling the usual fondness for her best friend.
‘OMG! If Jean doesn’t displace the water we’re going to drown!’ she started crying and her heart rate went up. At least with the water no one would notice the tears, but she knew that an accelerated heart rate wouldn’t help matters at all.
She then saw that the water was going down. She looked over to the window to see Tiffany float out!
‘Tiffany!’ she thought in anguish.
5 seconds later the water level was down to the level of the windows.

“Sandi!” Quinn yelled.

“Oh, dear!” Mr O’Neil said, it was clear that he was trying to make sense of the situation. Stacy went over to the window and saw that Joey was asking Tiffany if she was ok. ‘Good of you, Joey,’ she thought.

“I’m Free-ezing, and my hair is ru-uined,” Tiffany said in response to Joey’s question. She could see that Tiffany was ok. Joey then jumped back into the classroom, causing a splash.

Stacy then listened to the conversation in the classroom.

“I am a mischievous Genie,” Jean said.

“But Genie’s don’t exist,” Mr O’Neill said.

“But, how would you explain what just happened?” Stacy asked, wondering how else Mr O’Neill could explain it.

“I don’t have an explanation,” Mr O’Neill said.

Elias and Jeffy opened the door and the water emptied from the classroom, carrying many books and chairs with it. Quinn was angry. She blamed Sandi for the happenstance. I was angrier at Jean. It wasn’t really Sandi’s fault that the Genie that she has found is mischievous.

End of Flashback

The conclusion of the happening in the Language Arts classroom and discussions about the genie.

Summary of Science notes

Summary of discussions at lunch

Summary of Geography notes

Summary of Economics notes

Post school discussions about Sandi and the genie at the Blum Deckler’s house.

Arrival at home and dinner

Discussion with Mrs Morgendorffer and Mom

In conclusion, the events of the day were confusing and frightening. We do not know what is going to happen tomorrow or on any of the days after that. I do hope that Sandi will not use the power that the Emerald is giving her for ill. Tomorrow I will be meeting Quinn and Tiffany at Quinn’s house before going to school. I hope that tonight’s sleep will allow us rest and that clearer heads will allow us to come to some sort of decision before we go to school.

Weather forecast for tomorrow: Maximum temperature 50 degrees Fahrenheit, overcast with possible rainfall or snow later in the evening.

Click to expand...

Having finished writing in her diary, Stacy set her alarm to 7:00 and tried to go to sleep.

White House Situation Room, Washington DC
President William Jefferson Clinton was looking at a satellite image of an area of a town, centred around a high school.
“What is significant about this Pennsylvania town anyway?” he asked.

“A variety of weird events have been reported from Lawndale and its vicinity ever since the town was founded, Mr President. However the reason why you are here is a specific happening that happened today.”

“What is that event?” the President asked all business.

The image changed zooming into the High School. “This is Lawndale High School. This image was taken this morning at 0800. This is the school as it normally is, Mr President,” the National Security Advisor said.

The image changed, showing the extra floor on the science block. “And this is school as it is now. This image was taken at 1400.”

The President looked at the image with incredulity. “Is that an extra floor on one of the school’s buildings?” he asked.

“Precisely, Mr President, there are many theories as to how this has occurred, but all of them involve magic.”

That got the President’s attention. He had been briefed on many organisations and groups that used magic shortly after his inauguration, but none of them had been active anywhere near Pennsylvania. “The closest group I can think of is the Salam Coven,” he said, thinking of the most active group that he was aware of.

“They have been inactive since last September, Mr President. They have gone into hiding,” the National Security Advisor said.

“What is your theory?” the President asked.

“Our experts in the matter have largely theorised that it may be what is termed a ‘genie’, Mr President.

The President was surprised. He hadn’t been informed of the possibility of the existence of genies. He argued with the National Security Advisor about why he had not been informed (most of the evidence was indirect and there hadn’t been any activity that would be conclusive evidence on record in American territory at any point after 1776).

The briefing went on for another 20 minutes.

Elsewhere
Other organisations, both part of the United States Government and not part of it, were aware of some aspect of the events in Lawndale and were each making their own plans and preparing to send agents to the suburban town...

Chapter 2: Friday Adventures (Part 1)Friday February 19, 1999
Lawndale1111 Glen Oaks Lane 4:30
Quinn awoke from a strange dream. ‘I don’t know what to make of that,’ she thought. She tried to go back to sleep.

She soon found that she couldn’t so she decided to go down to the kitchen for a healthy snack.
However she found that she was not the only one who was up. Daria was sitting at the table reading a book and drinking from a cup when she walked in.

“Couldn’t sleep either?” Quinn asked.

“Something like that,” Daria said.

Quinn grabbed some carrot sticks and poured some milk. She then sat down across from Daria and sighed.

“Something on your mind?” Daria asked.

“Huh?”

“You look deep in thought. You don’t usually look like that.”

“Funny,” Quinn said, in her usual tone of voice. She then continued, more seriously. “It’s this situation you know? It is going to change everything! The Fashion Club, the social dynamic at school, the guys whom I date, possibly even all of Lawndale itself. It is frightening. It is as you said, Daria. The very idea of Sandi with a genie is frightening! The only reason why things weren’t worse yesterday is that Sandi hadn’t realised the full potential, and that Jean’s mischievousness is good natured,” Quinn said.

“You are right. It is going to change everything. Especially if either Ms Li or Sandi’s Mom find out,” Daria said.

Quinn thought, and didn’t like what she speculated (especially when she realised that Ms Li would use the genie to install more security measures for the school). “Dar-i-a! That is more frightening than with Sandi!”

“Exactly, that is one thing that you have to bring up with Stacy and Tiffany when they get here at breakfast. I will be talking to Jane around the same time. We could then meet at the school and discuss our decisions,” Daria said.

“Dar-ia! If I mention the possibility of the genie falling into the hands of either the principal or Mrs Griffin, Stacy would faint, and then she would be basically a wreck!” Quinn said.

“Quinn, they need to be informed of that possibility, or your discussions may be for naught,” Daria said.

Quinn was then in thought, for a moment and then spoke, “You are right, Daria, much as I hate to admit that. We may be late to school though.” She was sure that calming Stacy down would take up much of their time.

“If you are running late, you can continue your discussion on the way to school,” Daria suggested.

“I guess we had better and maybe Jeffy can give me a ride,” Quinn said. They talked for another minute about the situation.

“But now I don’t feel like going back to sleep!” Quinn said.

“Neither do I,” Daria said.

“But what are we going to do for the next few hours?”

“The same way we used to spend the wee small hours together when we were younger,” Daria said, as she stood up and went towards the living room.

“Video games? Sure, though I am mostly out of practice.”

“Which console do you want to use? The SNES or the N64?”

“SNES?” Quinn asked, confused. She knew what N64 meant but ‘SNES’ had her confused.

“You know, the Super Nintendo,” Daria said, as she pointed to where the system in question lay beneath the television and the VCR.

“Oh, it’s an acronym! Duh, Quinn!” she murmured to herself. “Maybe the N64, but I am not sure what game,” she continued.

“Ok,” Daria said, she unplugged the SNES and plugged in the N64. She and Quinn then played Mario Kart 64.

324 Eichler Street 5:00
Stacy awoke trembling as she remembered the events of the day before. “It was just a dream,” she said. She then realised, “or was it?” she grabbed her diary and read the most recent entry.
“So, it did happen!” She fainted back into her bed.

5 minutes later, Stacy came to. She remembered everything from the day before, from the incident at recess, to the conversation with Quinn’s mom. She re-read the diary entry.

She knew that she wouldn’t be able to go back to sleep, so she went down to the living room and took out the PlayStation. ‘I haven’t played this for a while. This will help me keep my mind off things until it’s time to go to Quinn’s,’ she thought. She found Final Fantasy VII and put the disk into the system.

111 Howard Drive 5:30
Jane was in the kitchen, looking for an early breakfast, when her brother Trent entered after a night of practice with his band, Mystik Spiral.
“You are up early, Janie,” he said.

“So are you,” Jane countered.

“Practice ran late, or early,” Trent said. He saw that his younger sister was in thought. “Something on your mind?” he asked.

“Oh, I told Tom about my 11th birthday,” Jane said.

“Cool,” Trent said, as he remembered that day.

“He thought so too. Anyway the problem is with the reason why I told him,” Jane said. Trent waited. “You remember the family we bowled next to, right?”

“Yes, the daughter had anger issues,” Trent said, wondering where Jane was going with this line of conversation.

“Yes. She is also the leader of the clique that Daria’s sister is part of,” Jane said.

“What are you getting at Janie?”

“Sandi was bowling next to Tom and I and she was bowling well. However I also remembered rumours that were going around school yesterday.”

“Since when do you pay attention to rumours at school?”

“Not often, but hear this. An extra floor appeared on the top of the science block yesterday! And the teachers don’t know how,” Jane said.

Trent could see that that his younger sister was not pulling his leg.

“So you are saying that this girl is involved in some kind of magic?” Trent asked, he had seen much of Lawndale in his 22 years, and some of what he had seen couldn’t be explained rationally...

“Exactly, Daria’s sister and her not so tame pack of football players also mentioned a classroom full of water, when we passed them in the hall,” Jane said.

“Something is definitely happening.”

“Daria called late last night, she said that Quinn spilled the beans to her family. She mentioned a genie. She is coming over at 7:00 and then we are going to talk about the situation. It seemed like she was unwilling to trust the phone for some reason,” Jane said.

“Is that it?”

“Yeah,” Jane said, in thought about what Daria might be telling her when she came over.

Trent was concerned for his sister. “Maybe I can get the old Atari out of the Attic and we can play something? Something to do, if you can’t get to sleep,” he said. Sleep was never a difficulty for Trent, narcoleptic as he was (Indeed the difficulty was staying awake for long periods).

Jane briefly considered the idea. “That is a very good idea,” she said. Trent went out to the stairs. ‘Although I may be spoiled by the arcades and the Morgendorffers’ Nintendo’s,’ she thought. She then went upstairs herself and waited for Trent near the bottom of the attic stairs.

Trent came down from the attic with a box with the 2600 system on the top of it. “Which game do you want to play first?” he asked.

Jane finished connecting the Atari to the television in her bedroom. “Let’s see, Pac-Man, Space Invaders, E.T. the Extra Terrestrial, Trent! That is the worst game of all time! Why do we have it?”

“Hmm, I guess that is why Wind said that the store was almost full of them when he bought it,” Trent said, referring to his and Jane’s older brother.

“At least the first 2 are amongst the best games of all time,” Jane said, putting the Pac-Man cartridge into the console. ‘Of course Wind would get it,’ she mused.

She and Trent took turns playing Pac-Man until Trent fell asleep and then Jane continued playing until Daria arrived.

631 Bernstein Avenue 6:00
Tiffany awoke and looked at her bedside clock. ‘I may as well get up,’ she thought. She remembered the events of the previous day, from Sandi’s floating until her discussion with Quinn’s mother. ‘I hope Quinn and Stacy will know what to do,’ she thought. She thought about the ways that Lawndale could change as a result of Sandi’s finding a genie. All of the conclusions she reached frightened her.
‘I still have an hour until I have to go to Quinn’s,’ she thought. She thought of a way to occupy her time. She then recalled the old Sega, that was down in the den. ‘I haven’t played anything since I started high school,’ she thought.

Tiffany found the Sega Genesis where she remembered it to be and carefully plugged it in to the den’s television. Certain that she had gotten the connections right she selected a game and plugged the cartridge in.

She was soon playing the game, sending the character all over the screen. “Sonic is fa-ast!” she said with her eyes on the blue hedgehog...

Varmittan Imperial Palace-Tree 6:30
“So it is a Genie!” the Varmittan Emperor exclaimed.

“Yes. The younger of the two human children was quite adamant about that!” Captain Jaywi said, as he tried to contain his excitement.

“I have read the archives, the previous mention of a genie in the ‘Pennsylvania’ region was in Oakwood, 30 years ago, 5 moon cycles before the humans made their first landing upon the moon,” the Emperor said.

“What occurred?” Captain Jaywi asked, curious.

“There was some chaos prior to the genie disappearing in the third day of the incident. Prior to that there was a sighting 60 years ago in Middlebury, but the information from then is fragmentary,” the Emperor said. Captain Jaywi knew why the information would be fragmentary, something to do with a War involving Europe...

The Emperor and the captain continued their discussion before the Emperor sent the Captain back to Glen Oaks Lane.

Tiffany looked at the clock as she switched off the Sega. ‘Yikes! I have to be at Quinn’s in 10 minutes!’ she thought. Just as well her house was only 2 blocks from the Morgendorffers. She went up to her room, grabbed her handbag and came back downstairs. “Bye, Mommy,” she said as she ran out the back door... She then went into the laneway.

324 Eichler Street 7:06
Stacy looked at the time. “Oh no! I have lost track of time!” she said. She then saved the game and then rushed upstairs to get changed.

5 minutes later she came down the stairs, turned off the PlayStation (and put it away) and then ran out the front door.

Daria met Tiffany at the door as she was going out. “See you at school, Quinni,” Daria said.

“Quinni?” Tiffany asked.

“It is a nickname, like when Kevin calls his friend ‘Mack-Daddy’,” Daria said.

“Only not so annoying,” Quinn said as she turned off the N64 and started walking over.

“Oh yeah, like when my name is short-tened to Tiff.”

“’Ari’, do you see Stacy?”

Daria glared at Quinn for a fraction of a second before stepping out of the door, past Tiffany and looking up and down the street for Stacy. “She is nowhere to be seen. Does she always lack punctuality?”

“In Middle School, she was all-ways, Tard-dy.”

“She is usually the last to arrive at Fashion Club meetings,” Quinn said.

“If I see her, I’ll tell her that you are waiting,” Daria said, as she set out for Jane’s. Quinn watched her sister walk out to the sidewalk before turning back to Tiffany.

“Let’s go wait in the kitchen, we will wait for five minutes and then start our discussion without her.”

512 Grandstaff Drive 7:20
Sandi awoke. ‘Hard to believe that I released a mischievous genie yesterday,’ she thought. She got out of bed, and walked to her door. She opened it and looked down the hall towards the guest bedroom, where Jean was supposedly sleeping. ‘Maybe I should have had asked her whether she has to sleep or not,’ she thought. She gathered her clothes and towel out of the closet and went to the bathroom.

Stacy was racing along in a tremendous hurry, indeed as she turned a corner she crashed into Daria. They both fell, with Stacy ending up on top of Daria.
“Stacy, Watch where you are going!”

“Oh! I’m so sorry!” Stacy said, in apology, starting to hyperventilate as she got up. Daria also got to her feet.

“No big problem, just watch out. A car might be backing out. I also must say that Quinn and Tiffany are waiting. They may have already started without you.”

“Oh no! I hope that they will fill me in on what they have discussed. Sometimes when I am late to a Fashion Club meeting, Sandi won’t tell me what I have missed.”

“I am sure that they will. Tiffany only got there 5 -10 minutes ago, at just about the same time that I left.”

Stacy thought for a moment. “Good! Bye,” Stacy said. She then ran off towards the Morgendorffers house.

Daria looked back at the hurrying Stacy. “I hope she doesn’t crash into anyone else.” She then continued towards Casa Lane (as Jane called her house).

Back at the Griffin’s, Sam Griffin (the middle child) saw Sandi go into the bathroom. ‘Time for some investigating,’ he thought. He then tip-toed to Chris’s door and looked inside. He saw that his brother was still asleep. ‘Good, I can investigate without his annoying interference.’

He then went into Sandi’s room...

He soon found what he was looking for, the emerald! ‘What is so special about this stone, that Sandi is suddenly carrying it wherever she goes?’ he thought. He gave it a rub, and then another. When Jean appeared out of thin air, sitting on Sandi’s bed, he was frightened out of his wits!

“Eep!” He let out as he promptly fell to the floor.

Stacy narrowly avoided being hit by a car that was backing out as she ran along the Glen Oaks Lane sidewalk. “Watch where you are going!” the driver said.

“Sorry!” Stacy shouted back. She could now see the Morgendorffer residence up ahead.

When Sam came to, he could see Jean sitting at Sandi’s computer. “You know, Sam, this ‘internet’ is very interesting. It is a veritable treasure trove of information from all around the world, where people can communicate without knowing each other’s real names. Oh, I also gave your family a free ‘broadband’ connection rather than that rather slow ‘dial up’” she said.

“So you are a genie?”

“Yes.”

“Sandi found this and you are now granting her wishes?”

“She found it on Wednesday. I started granting her wishes yesterday, after she was scared in a similar manner to you.”

“Really?” Sam asked. He thought about it. ‘I remember Jean arriving on Wednesday, but I didn’t actually see her until yesterday. I guess that the ‘exchange student’ cover was a wish by Sandi.’

“Yes. There was some chaos occurring at the High School as a result, but nothing too serious,” Jean said.

“What sort of chaos?’ Sam asked, now curious.

“Oh, pool water in classrooms, people floating in the air, time anomalies...” Jean said.

Sam was surprised. “Oh, I guess Sandi would do those things, if she had reason,” he said.

“No, that was me being mischievous. I made Sandi float in the air and later filled her English classroom with water. Sandi wished for Voice Recognition software, and for better bowling skills,” Jean said.

“I can believe that,” Sam said, remembering most of the Griffin family bowling games where Sandi would get a low score compared to the rest of the family.

“So, do you wish for anything? You do have the emerald, anyone holding it has unlimited wishes.”

Sam thought for a moment, he was sure of one thing. He didn’t want Chris to share in whatever he wished up. “Ok, I wish for a scale model of this house made of LEGO.”

“Granted,” Jean said, with the usual gesture and sound. A large LEGO model of the Griffin residence appeared in the middle of the room.

“Cool!” Sam said as he looked at the LEGO model, looked very much like the house, the bricks having the same colours as the bricks and tiles of the house. He looked into the window that corresponded to Sandi’s room. He could see a couple of LEGO people, dressed like him and Jean and a model of the model.

“Samuel Josiah Griffin!” Sandi had returned to the room. “What are you, like, doing in my room?” she asked, with her voice raised, though not quite shouting.

“Eep!”

“Jean! Did you tell him?” the look on Sandi’s face implied that she knew what the answer was going to be, but wanted it anyway.

“Yes.”

“Sam! Give me the Emerald!” Sandi said, she jumped over the LEGO model, and began wrestling with Sam for the emerald...

‘This will be interesting,’ Jean thought.

Stacy ran up to the Morgendorffers’ front door and pounded on it. Quinn quickly opened the door. “Relax. Stacy; Tiff and I haven’t discussed anything yet,” she said.

“Because we need to consider the possibility!” Quinn said, as she tried to revive Stacy.

Sandi managed to grab the emerald off Sam. “Ha! You little brat!” she said as she climbed onto the bed. Her hair was a mess, but she could see that Sam’s pyjama top was torn.

“I won’t tell anyone. Mom and Dad wouldn’t believe it anyway and why would I tell Chris? He sucks!”

Sandi thought about the last sentiment. Why couldn’t her brothers get along? Life would have been a lot easier if their sibling rivalry wasn’t so intense. “That’s good. Now, like, get out of here!”

“What about the LEGO model?” Sam asked. The LEGO in question disappeared. “What!” he continued.

“It is now in your room,” Jean said.

“Good!” Sam said “I’ll see you at breakfast,” he said to his sister, as he went out of her room. Sandi closed the door.

“It is only a matter of time until the rest of your family finds out, Sandi. I suspect that it would be Chris next. I am sure that he would be more of a blabber than Sam,” Jean said.

Sandi leaned against the door. “I shudder to think of what might happen if Mom found out!” she lamented.

Jean shuddered on the bed. “She would certainly change Lawndale for the worse!” she said.

‘Good that she agrees with me on that!’ Sandi thought. She considered her next action. She needed some way of keeping track of the wishes that were made. She then thought of such a way. She was still holding the emerald. “I wish that all of the wishes that have been, like, granted by you and this emerald since yesterday until further notice would be recorded somehow,” She said.

“That’s easy,” Jean said, and granted the wish. A book appeared on Sandi’s bed. Sandi went over and picked it up.

“Book of Granted Wishes,” she read from the cover. She opened the book and saw a list of granted wishes starting from the second page.

List of Wishes granted on September 18, 1999

Sandi Griffin wishes for: Jean Jenner to be remembered by Tom, Linda, Sam and Chris Griffin as an exchange student.

Sandi Griffin wishes for: Jean Jenner to be in all relevant enrolment records at Lawndale High.

Sandi Griffin wishes for: All the computers at Lawndale High to have voice recognition software and the components necessary for that software to work

Sandi Griffin wishes for: The water in the classroom and the corridor outside to go back into the pool

Sandi Griffin wishes for: The people in and just outside of the Language Arts classroom would be dry, that their clothes, hair, books and stationary would be as if they had not been underwater.

Sandi Griffin wishes for: Time to slow down for a while

Sandi Griffin wishes for: Help with Ten Pin Bowling

List of Wishes granted (so far) on September 19, 1999

Sam Griffin wishes for: A LEGO model of the Griffin Residence

Sandi Griffin wishes for: A way of recording wishes made since September 18, 1999

“Cool,” Sandi said. She put the book and the emerald next to the computer. Now I have to get ready again!” she said as she went out of the room. Jean sighed.

Quinn handed Stacy a piece of toast with strawberry jam on it. “You know that this has carbs, right?” she said.

“It is healthy, unlike cheese. Anyway, as I was saying earlier, we need to consider the possibility of Ms Li or Mrs Griffin gaining control of the emerald, and what we need to do then,” Quinn said.

“But, Qui-inn, we haven’t figured out what to do about Sand-di having the gen-nie yet!” Tiffany said.

“She has a point, Quinn,” Stacy said.

“That is true,” Quinn said. She then asked Stacy to recount their discussion from the previous afternoon.

“Of course,” Stacy said, taking out a notebook.

‘Good thing she has eidetic memory,’ Quinn thought as Stacy began.

Daria arrived at Jane’s house and knocked on the door. There was no answer. ‘Maybe she is still asleep,’ she thought. She knew that Jane wasn’t a morning person, often requiring coffee to properly function. She found that the front door was unlocked. ‘figures, Trent forgot to lock the door,’ she thought.

Jane was on level 156 of Pac-Man when Daria entered her room. “Did you and Trent play games all night?” Daria asked.

A ghost got Jane’s Pac-Man, bringing an end to the game. “Yo Amiga!” Jane said, getting up stiffly and ensuring that she didn’t disturb the sleeping form of Trent ‘not that it would wake him anyway,’ she mused.
“Not all night, just the last hour and a half. I couldn’t sleep and he had come back from practice with Mystik Spiral. He fell asleep, of course.”

“So, what is this about a Genie and what has it got to do with what happened at school yesterday?” Jane asked.

“Mom asked us about what happened at school and Quinn says that she wouldn’t believe it,” Daria said.

“And?”

“Mom then asked Quinn why wouldn’t she believe it, and Quinn said that the events were totally fantastical, which they were,” Daria began. She then repeated everything else that Quinn said (with more sardonic commentary).

Jane then told Daria about Tom and herself running into Sandi and Jean at the bowling alley and her 11th birthday present from Trent.

Daria arrived at Jane’s house and knocked on the door. There was no answer. ‘Maybe she is still asleep,’ she thought. She knew that Jane wasn’t a morning person, often requiring coffee to properly function. She found that the front door was unlocked. ‘figures, Trent forgot to lock the door,’ she thought.

Jane was on level 156 of Pac-Man when Daria entered her room. “Did you and Trent play games all night?” Daria asked.

A ghost got Jane’s Pac-Man, bringing an end to the game. “Yo Amiga!” Jane said, getting up stiffly and ensuring that she didn’t disturb the sleeping form of Trent ‘not that it would wake him anyway,’ she mused.
“Not all night, just the last hour and a half. I couldn’t sleep and he had come back from practice with Mystik Spiral. He fell asleep, of course.”

“So, what is this about a Genie and what has it got to do with what happened at school yesterday?” Jane asked.

“Mom asked us about what happened at school and Quinn says that she wouldn’t believe it,” Daria said.

“And?”

“Mom then asked Quinn why wouldn’t she believe it, and Quinn said that the events were totally fantastical, which they were,” Daria began. She then repeated everything else that Quinn said (with more sardonic commentary).

Jane then told Daria about Tom and herself running into Sandi and Jean at the bowling alley and her 11th birthday present from Trent.

Sandi and Jean walked down the stairs to the kitchen, where Sam and Chris were already having their breakfast. Sandi could tell that Sam hadn’t told Chris about the emerald. She then went and grabbed her box of low-carbohydrate cereal from the pantry. Jean put some toast into the toaster. “What is your plan?” She asked.

“We will go to school and, like, try to stay out of sight,” Sandi said, wondering how it had come to that.

“Good plan,” Jean said. She could see Linda come down the stairs.

“Good morning!” Linda said.

Lawndale Offices of Vitale, Davis, Horowitz, Rhiordan, Shrechter and Shrechter 8:00
Helen looked up from her piles of paperwork to see her boss, Eric Shrechter, walk into her office.
“Helen, you wanted to see me?” he asked.

“Yes, Eric. Something has come up regarding the High School, and I need some time off this afternoon to talk to some of the other parents about the issue,” Helen said.

“What sort of issue?” Eric asked, wondering what had come up.

“That is confidential and on a need to know basis,” Helen said strongly. She didn’t want anyone else in the law firm to know about the genie.

“Can’t your husband be there?” Eric asked.

“He could, and he may be, but I need to be there myself. I would like to know more about this issue first hand,” Helen said.

Eric thought. “It depends on how busy we are today,” he said, finally.

“Oh, alright,” Helen said as Eric left the office. She immediately went back to work.

“...In conclusion we agree that Sandi having the genie is a bad thing and that we need to sleep on it,” Stacy finished summarising the notes from their discussion at Tiffany’s the previous afternoon.

“Very good, Stacy,” Quinn said, encouragingly.

“So, your sister said that we need to consider the fact that Mrs Griffin or Ms Li may get the emerald?” Stacy asked.

“Cousin,” Quinn corrected.

“Oh, Quinn, we know that Daria is your sister,” Stacy said. ‘If this isn’t the time for this, there is otherwise no time,’ she thought.

“We were just being polite about it,” Tiffany added.

“Oh,” Quinn said. ‘Of course, there is an obvious resemblance, such as there is between Mom and Aunt Rita,’ she thought. “Thanks. Anyway, Stace, you were saying?”

“So, Daria suggested that we need to consider the fact that Mrs. Griffin or Ms. Li may get the emerald?” Stacy asked.

“Yes,” Quinn said.

“Right, which situation do we consider first, Mrs. Griffin or Ms. Li?” Stacy asked as she took down the notes.

Quinn thought about it for half a minute.

“Qui-inn?” Tiffany asked, wondering if she had dozed off.

“Most likely Ms. Li, because Sandi most likely will go to school today,” Quinn said.

“Ok, so you think that Jeans mischievous nature will cause her genie nature to come to Ms Li’s attention?” Stacy asked. ‘A likely outcome!’ she thought.

“Exactly,” Quinn said, although she was sure that she wouldn’t have had put it exactly the way that Stacy had.

“But there is no way to know what sort of events would happen as a result of Jean’s mischief!” Stacy said, starting to hyperventilate again.

“I know, we may need to organise some sort of distraction,” Quinn said.

“Bu-ut what sort of dis-traction?” Tiffany asked, confused. ‘It would have to be a very good distraction,’ she thought.

“I am sure Daria would have an idea,” Quinn said.

“But what do you think?” Stacy asked. ‘I am certain that she will come up with something. She does come up with many of ideas in the Fashion Club,’ she thought.

Quinn thought and came up with an idea. ‘It seems crazy, but it might just work,’ she thought. She then told the other two.

“But are you sure that would work?” Stacy asked.

“It would have to, unless Daria and her art friend can think of something else,” Quinn said. ‘I am certain that Daria would help me improve the plan,’ she thought.

“What if it doesn’t work?” Tiffany asked.

“Then Ms. Li may find out,” Quinn said.

“But it must work!” Stacy said.

“Relax, Stacy, we may come up with something else,” Quinn said. ‘Multiple plans, and contingency plans for all of them. Definitely Daria’s territory or maybe of that tycoon guy on that cartoon about those living statues,’ she thought.

They continued their discussion.

“Quite an interesting situation, it would be worthy of a Sick Sad World episode!” Jane said when Daria had finished her commentary.

“And most viewers would say ‘what the hell are they thinking’,” Daria said.

“’A genie in a Pennsylvanian suburban High School? Magic in the burbs, next on Sick Sad World!” Jane said, imitating the usual SSW announcer.

“It may work,” Daria said, with a tiny smirk.

“Told ya,” Jane said.

“Besides, we need to be going if we are going to meet Quinn, Stacy and Tiffany with sufficient time before homeroom,” Daria said.

“Whose idea was that again?” Jane asked.

“Mine.”

“And Quinn agreed?”

“Jane, if we’re going to stop this problem before it gets out of control, we need all the help we can get!”

“They aren’t as dumb as they appear; at least Quinn and Stacy aren’t,” Daria said.

“I guess so,” Jane said, unconvinced. Daria noticed the ET game cartridge where Jane had thrown it aside earlier. She picked it up.

“Isn’t this the worst game of all time?”

“According to Trent, Wind bought it,”

“That sort of makes sense. Not only is he a failure at relationships, he is also a failure as a gamer,” Daria said.

“Yeah,” Jane said as she lead the way out of the room.

“Do you think it would be safe to leave Trent in your room?”

“He knows not to mess with my stuff.”

Lawndale High School 8:40
After arriving early to school Anna Pearce was looking for Jean. She was curious to know why Jean was a genie and curious as to what the emerald could do...

“Anna? What are you doing?” Her friend, Lisbeth Siobhan ‘Chipmunk’ Ogden, asked as they appeared to be aimlessly wandering the school’s corridors.

“There was a genie at school yesterday, and I am sure that it will be here today,” Anna said.

“Maybe,” Chipmunk (Chip for short) said. Whilst she had heard of the rumours the previous day and had seen the extra floor on the science block, she was sceptical.

“You were here yesterday,” Anna said, as they entered the Industrial Arts Block.

“It is rather fantastical, even with that extra floor.”

“Maybe if you went to the library with me after school, instead of going to Track training, you would have better deductive reasoning skills,” Anna said.

Chip wasn’t sure what Anna was talking about. “But I am good at it!” she said, referring to her position in the Track team.

“Oh sure,” Anna said, in a teasing tone. Chip rolled her eyes.

Jeffy Brown’s car pulled into the LHS student parking lot, close to the school. “Thanks for the ride, Jeffy,” Quinn said.

“Anything for you, Quinn,” Jeffy said, sincerely. Stacy and Tiffany got out of the back seat, Stacy remembered to lock the door, but Tiffany didn’t.

“Do you know where to meet Daria and Jane?” Stacy asked.

As if on cue; Trent’s Plymouth coupé, being driven by Jane, pulled in next to Jeffy’s car. Jane turned off the engine and got out. Daria also got out.

“Oh,” Stacy said.

“I see that taking Trent’s car was a good idea,” Jane said.

“Wasting time searching for them would not have been well spent,” Daria said.

“Hi, Daria, have you and Jane come up with anything?” Quinn asked.

The Fashionable Trio plus Jeffy and the Amiga Outcasts filled each other in on their discussions as they walked towards the school.

Daria reached the door first. “That is a good idea, Quinn,” she said. She was going to say something else (with a mixture of encouragement and sarcasm), but she was interrupted by Jane.

“Quite surprising that you would come up with it,” she said.

“Well, Jane, this situation is quite shocking. As a result, I have started to re-evaluate what is important,” Quinn said, seriously.

“Oh!” Jane said, at a loss for words at the (slight) change in Quinn.

Daria didn’t know what to think about it either. She knew, however, that the changes in Quinn were slight. ‘It is at least a few steps in the right direction,’ she thought.

“But how are you going to set it into motion, Quinn?” Jeffy asked.

“We need to find a few others and talk to them about it. The bigger the distraction, the better,” Quinn said.

“The question is; who would be suitable?” Jane said.

“Andrea, Jodie, Mack, and though I loath to admit it, Upchuck,” Daria said.

“Upchuck? Really? Eeeeww!” Quinn said.

“There are brains in our grade who would do it better than Upchuck!” Stacy offered.

“Ok, Upchuck as a last resort. That leaves the other 3, and those other ‘brains’ that Stacy mentioned,” Daria said.

The group turned a corner, heading towards the HSIE block.

“Now to find one of those people, preferably Jodie and Mack,” Jane said.

“Joey and Jamie can help as well!” Jeffy said, as he trailed behind. ‘They aren’t as dumb as you think either,’ he thought.

Whilst Anna and Chip were passing through the Industrial Arts block and the Amiga Outcasts, Fashionable Trio and Jeffy were discussing whom would help them in their planned distraction of Ms. Li from Jean’s nature, Elias exited the library on his own search for Jean. He was sure that she needed a friend. He also wanted to keep an eye on Sandi, to ensure that she wouldn’t make any wishes that would change Lawndale any further.

“Anna, don’t tell me you are doing what I think you are doing!” Chip said, in a slightly agitated tone.

“Chip, the genie may be hiding up there,” Anna protested.

“That wouldn’t matter if whomever has whatever is standing in for a lamp is not also there,” Chip countered.

“I am still going up there,” Anna said, as if daring Chip to deny her the exploratory opportunity. “Besides, I heard that it was Sandi Griffin,” she continued.

‘The president of the Fashion Clique?’ Chip thought. “You don’t know what is up there,” she said, responding to Anna’s previous comment, as they came to one of the flights of stairs to the second floor.

“I know. Think of it as an opportunity to explore,” Anna said, as she started going up the stairs.

‘It is a good thing that she is a member of the Orienteering Club.’ Chip thought as she followed her upwards.

Two minutes later, the two seniors opened a door marked Roof into a corridor much like all other corridors in the school. There were only minor differences. The floors, walls and ceilings looked the same. The Linoleum, the lockers and the lights were of the same colour. The doors were also the same colour. However something felt off (at least to Chip, if not to Anna).

“So far, it looks like anywhere else in the school,” Anna said, her voice showing a slight disappointment.

“But anything could be waiting in the classrooms,” Chip countered, with a slight edge of fear in her voice.

“Spoilsport!” Anna said, picking up on Chip’s fear. She led the way to a nearby door. It was unlocked. Anna slowly opened it. The science lab inside looked similar to the labs on the floors below, except that it had cruder looking instruments, inkwells in most of the desks and metal chairs.

“It looks more like something out of a Frankenstein movie than a high school science lab,” Chip said.

“It’s not that bad,” Anna said as she stepped into the slightly Frankenstein-ish science classroom.

“Maybe not,” Chip conceded. They looked around that room before moving on to the next room.

“So you are saying that the rumours yesterday were true, that there is a genie, that Sandi Griffin is involved and that you want my help in setting up a distraction so that Ms. Li doesn’t find out?” Jodie Landon asked, incredulously.

“Yes,” Daria said.

“What she said,” Jane said.

“It doesn’t make any sense,” Jodie objected.

“Believe me, the last day has been rather strange, but the events happened!” Quinn said. ‘Of course, most of the people did not see what happened for themselves, but that doesn’t mean that they didn’t hear about it,” Quinn said.

“I remember everything,” Stacy said.

“My imagina-ation is not tha-at active,” Tiffany said. She knew that her imagination was not that active ‘If I did have a more active imagination, I would have been able to help more with the discussion at Quinn’s,’ she thought.

Jodie sighed. “If it were anyone else telling me this, Daria, I wouldn’t have believed it, even with that extra floor. I mean that could be a scheme of Li’s accomplished via smoke and mirrors, right?”

“The question is; how are eight people going to distract the principal when a genie is potentially causing chaos?” Jodie asked. ‘Eight people can only do so much in the face of such chaos,’ she thought.

“We are going to need more people,” Quinn said. ‘But who else would want to help us?” she thought.

“Like Andrea, and some Sophomore Brains,” Daria said.

“That would be a good start, but what about Upchuck?” Jodie asked.

She was about to say something more when she was interrupted by a synchronised “Eeeeww!” from the Fashionable Trio.

“He is good with magic tricks, He could possibly use smoke and mirrors to hide the genie’s antics,” Jodie said. ‘Once one looks past his ultrasuave act he is actually a good person,’ she thought.

“I thought he gave up that hobby when he started acting all ultra-suave,” Jane said.

“Believe me, he hasn’t,” Mack said.

“If we find Upchuck, we will talk to him. As it is, we are running out of time. We need to start an interim plan now,” Daria said. ‘We are running out of time. There are less than ten minutes until homeroom,’ she thought.

Quinn glanced at her watch, “Yikes! You’re right!” she said. They began discussing an interim plan.

At the same time as Chip and Anna entering the Science Block and Daria et al talking to Jodie and Mack, Brooke was looking for Sandi between the Library and the Arts/Music block. She then heard Andrea saying “Be careful Sandi!” Brooke looked and saw that Torii was already moving in on Sandi.

“Be careful Sandi,” Andrea said.

“I know I have to be careful!” Sandi said.

“There you are Sandi!” Torii said. “This time your time trick won’t work!” she continued. ‘Bring it on!’ she thought, readying herself for what might come next.

“And why is that?” Sandi asked, glaring at Torii. Torii charged, grabbing the emerald. She and Sandi then struggled. Sandi grabbed Torii’s hair. Torii then also grabbed Sandi’s hair. Sandi used her other hand to try to wrestle Torii’s hand off the emerald. This went on for a minute before Torii decided to wish Sandi somewhere else. By this time a large crowd had gathered, including Jean, Andrea (both hoping that Sandi would beat Torii back), Brooke, Ted, Joey and Jamie.

“I wish that Sandi would be elsewhere!” Torii said. ‘Now, I have the emerald!’ Torii thought, gloating.

“No!” Sandi said before she vanished, leaving Torii holding the emerald.

“Where did she go, Torii Jericho?” Andrea asked.

“Why don’t you ask the genie, Hecuba!” Torii said. She purposely wasn’t on a first name basis with unpopular teens to spite them.

“She is still in the school!” Jean said, to Andrea. At Joey’s glare she said “She’s not in the pool though.”

“Good,” Joey said.

Torii looked at the extra floor on the science block. ‘No, I’ll leave that there. There may be no telling what useful nick-knacks may be in there,’ she thought. She came up with a wish. “I wish for bright streamers in the school colours hanging off the side of the library,” she said. ‘That will brighten this school up!’ she thought.

Jean grumbled but granted the wish anyway. Bright blue and yellow streamers appeared, with the usual sound, hanging off the library building.

Elias was outside the cafeteria when Sandi appeared next to him. “Elias, I, like, need your help!” she said, with reluctance.

“Someone else has the emerald?” he asked.

“Torii Jericho!” she said. Elias’ eyes widened.

“Let’s go,” he said. ‘She would be worse than Sandi!’ he thought. He ran off towards the quad, Sandi followed close behind him.

Torii was still deciding what to wish next when she saw Elias and Sandi enter the quad and run towards the crowd. She grabbed the emerald. “Oh no you don’t!” Andrea said, growling. She leapt towards Torii. Torii put herself into a defensive stance, but that was no defence against 145 pounds of Goth Chick moving towards her at 10 miles per hour.

Andrea crashed into Torii, preventing her from making a wish, and knocking her over. “You are going to give the emerald back to Sandi!” she said, as she grabbed the emerald herself.

“Why don’t you want it for yourself?” Torii asked, through gritted teeth.

“It is too big a responsibility, for any one person, especially a person like me,” Andrea said. She saw that Sandi was now approaching the two. “I wish that Sandi would have the emerald back.”

The emerald disappeared from around Torii’s neck and appeared around Sandi’s neck. Andrea got off Torii and looked at Sandi in the eyes. “I hope you realize what a burden having a genie at your command is,” she said.

Sandi was at a loss for words as the bell rang. She did not know what to say in response to Andrea’s statement.

She then wished herself to homeroom.

Anna and Chip heard the bell ring as they exited the third laboratory (which definitely had Frankenstein qualities). “We can come back at recess,” Anna said.

“Possibly,” Chip said as they went back towards the stairs down to the normal part of the science block.

Daria, Quinn and the others heard the bell ring. “At least we have a basic plan,” Quinn said. ‘ I hope it works!’ she thought.

“That we do have, Quinn. That we do,” Jane said.

“Hopefully we won’t need to put it to the test,” Jodie said.

“Murphy’s law may come into play,” Daria said.

“I hope not,” Jodie said. They then dispersed to their different homerooms, after agreeing to meet at Recess.

20 minutes later, Ms Li was handed the incident report about the ‘fight’ between Andrea and Torii.

“That sort of behaviour is definitely not the sort of behaviour that Lawndale High students should be behaving in!” she exclaimed (pronouncing the school’s name in her usual manner), after she read it.

Torii knew that she was in trouble if the principal used her full name. She certainly didn’t see any teachers during her confrontation with Sandi or with Andrea, but someone must have been there. She exited the economics class with trepidation (after grabbing a hall pass from Mrs. Bennett). ‘Hecuba will take the fall, no matter what she says,’ she thought.

Quinn and Jeffy looked at each other as Torii exited the room. Did this have something to do with the events related to the genie? Or was it separate? Neither were sure, so they decided to stay put.

‘What is it now? I thought no staff was present when I was grabbing the emerald off that ‘Popular Girl’ Torii,” Andrea thought. She also didn’t like the fact that the principal used her first name. ‘Haley is no name for a Goth like me,’ she thought as she walked up to Mr DeMartino’s desk.

Mr DeMartino handed her a hall pass. “Whatever it is Ms Hecuba, come back ASAP!” he said.

“Whatever!” she said as she left the room.

Daria, Jane, Jodie and Mack looked at each other as Andrea left the classroom. They were wondering whether Ms. Li’s call to the office had anything to do with recent events. None of them were sure, so they didn’t follow Andrea.

Stacy looked up from her work as she heard Ms. Li’s announcement. ‘Does this have something to do with the genie?’ she thought. She looked at Tiffany, whom was looking at her textbook with a perplexed expression. It appeared that Tiffany hadn’t paid the announcement any notice. She also noticed that Sandi (whom was sitting on the other side of Tiffany) had tensed up when the announcement was made. She also glanced at Jean. The genie however appeared to be engrossed in the work.
But Sandi’s reaction made Stacy think. ‘I have to check it out!’ she thought. She got up and walked to the front. “Mr. Crown, I need to go to the bathroom,” she said. The teacher absentmindedly handed her hall pass without looking at her, and continued reviewing his lesson plan. She quickly exited the classroom.

‘What is Stacy up to?’ Sandi thought as she saw her exit the classroom. She went back to the work.

Stacy slowly edged along the corridor, and ducked into an adjacent corridor when she saw Torii turn a corner into the corridor. ‘Ok, there’s the Popularity Meter Girl, but where’s the Goth Chick,’ she thought. She followed Torii quietly.

Andrea reached the principal’s office first.

“Take a seat, Ms. Hecuba,” Ms. Li said.

Andrea crossed her arms and stared at the Principal in defiance.

“You will take a seat. Your actions this morning quite possibly have tarnished the good name of Lawndale High,” Ms Li, putting more reverence into the pronunciation of the school’s name than usual.

“Why do you have to do that?” Andrea asked, referring to Ms. Li’s pronunciation.

“I need an answer, Ms. Hecuba,” Ms. Li said, whilst staring Andrea in the eyes. Andrea stared back for a few seconds before responding.

“The Fifth,” she said. Telling the Principal the truth would be a very bad idea. ‘I have no idea of what would happen if she gets a hold of that emerald!’ she thought.

“You are not getting away that easily, Ms. Hecuba,” the Principal said. She placed a thick folder on the desk. “This is your permanent record. Do you want me to go through it?”

Andrea just sat back and glared at the Principal, as if saying ‘bring it on.’

“Fine, I will read your misdemeanours to you in front of Ms. Jericho.”

Andrea raised an eyebrow. ‘She has to be bluffing. There is no legal way she can do that!’ she thought.

“And I’ll read hers to her in front of you,” Ms. Li continued.

‘Still would be a bluff. But if it is not a bluff, it is the price to pay for her not knowing about the genie,’ Andrea thought.

Torii then entered the office. “What is this about, Ms. Li?” she asked.

“You and Ms. Hecuba were involved in an altercation shortly before Homeroom. Why were you fighting?” The principal asked.

Stacy tip-toed up to the office door and then began to peek through the keyhole.

“You can’t do that. Permanent records are meant to be private!” Torii said.

“What is discussed here now, will not leave this room,” Ms. Li said.

Torii looked at Andrea. “I will not say anything if you won’t,” she said, whilst winking one eye after the other.

Andrea got the message “Deal,” she said.

“Ms Jericho, I have never known you to pass up such an opportunity for gossip. You must be hiding something!” Ms. Li said.

“I’m not hiding anything!” Torii said.

“Neither am I,” Andrea added.

“It is clear that you are hiding something. I’m hooking you up to the polygraph machine!” Ms. Li said.

“Oh no!” Stacy said, as she heard Ms. Li’s threat to the other teens.

5 minutes later, Ms. Li had hooked Andrea up to the polygraph machine that she had spent school funds on (shortly before the previous year’s collapse of the library roof).

“Now, why were you fighting with Ms Jericho before Homeroom?”

“Like, I need a reason to fight!” Andrea said, her voice deadpan and reminding Ms. Li of someone else.

‘I see she has been observing Ms. Morgendorffer in class,’ Ms. Li thought as the polygraph needle continued to plot a straight line.

“Was there a particular reason why you were fighting this morning?”

“No!” Andrea said.

The polygraph needle went haywire.

‘Yes!’ “Ah-ha! We are getting somewhere! Does the reason have anything to do with an earlier confrontation between Ms. Jericho and Ms. Griffin?”

“No!”

The polygraph needle, again went haywire...

Some thought’s connected in Ms. Li’s brain. “Does it have anything to do with those crazy rumours from yesterday?” the principal asked.

“No!” Andrea said.

The polygraph needle once more went haywire. But Ms. Li was not paying any attention to it because Stacy had chosen that moment to burst into the office.

“Ms. Rowe! What is the meaning of this?” Ms. Li asked. ‘This had better be important!’ she thought.

Stacy was panting, and her hysterical nature was in full control. “There are vampires! In the Science Block! They are coming down from the new floor!” she said.

“Vampires? Really, Ms Rowe, you must be watching too much of that Buffy show! There are no such things as vampires!”

“But they have fangs and everything!” Stacy shouted.

“Then lead me to them,” Ms. Li said, sensing something fishy.

“Oh no! I am not going back there!” Stacy said. She then appeared to faint.

“I guess I will have to check it for myself! Ms. Hecuba, stay where you are. Ms. Jericho, look after Ms. Rowe!” the principal said. ‘I am sure that they will be here when I get back,’ she thought as she quickly exited the office.

After the Principal was gone Andrea disconnected herself from the polygraph machine with disgust.

Torii shook Stacy. “Are you ok, Stacy?” she asked.

Stacy sat up. “I didn’t think that would work!” she said.

“You mean that there aren’t vampires in the Science Block?” Andrea asked.

“No, I doubt Sandi would wish for any, or that Jean would create any without someone wishing for them,” Stacy said.

“Lawndale is stuffed up enough as it is without a Hellmouth to make it worse,” Andrea said.

“Of course you would have to watch that show too, Hecuba,” Torii said. ‘But not really surprising,’ she thought.

“Better than watching any of the other crap on TV,” Andrea mumbled. Torii decided not to reply to that.

“We had better get scarce before Ms Li get’s back,” Andrea said.

“Oh yeah! I better get back to class,” Stacy said. She quickly left the principal’s office.

“I will be in the Library,” Andrea said, as she too, left.

“I’ll go onto the roof,’ Torii thought.

Ms. Li entered the Science Block from the quad. “Seems oddly quiet,” she said. She quickly went to the stairs and went up to the second level. It was also quiet. She walked to the next stairs, those that now lead up to the third level, rather than the roof.

Stacy returned to the classroom.
“You took your time, Stacy,” Sandi said, when Stacy had given the hall pass back to the teacher, and was approaching her seat.

“Sometimes, it takes a lot of time!” Stacy said.

“Stacy, Eeewww!” Tiffany said.

“Sorry!” Stacy said, as apology.

‘She must have been up to something!’ Sandi thought. ‘But what?’

Andrea entered the library, from the second level footbridge that lead from above the cafeteria. ‘The Principal won’t think to look for me here!’ she thought. She then went to the fiction section.

Torii emerged onto the roof, above the office/cafeteria/hall block. ‘I will stay up here until recess. But what will I do for that amount of time?” she pondered. She walked over behind the water tank shack.

Ms. Li emerged from the stairwell into the corridor in the new floor of the science block. It felt ‘off’ but there was a distinct lack of vampires.
“Ms. Rowe! You will answer for this!” she said as she turned around. ‘Maybe she thought that there were vampires, but that is no excuse!’ she thought.

Ms. Li arrived back at the office to find it empty. “Great, where have they gone now? I hope they are in class! There is definitely something going on here!”

Ms Li was waiting for the 3 miscreants (Andrea, Torii and Stacy) when knockout gas appeared in the office. “What!” she said, as she lost consciousness. At the same time all the equipment in the office failed. (Wires broke, the light bulbs blew, the computer’s Windows produced a Blue Screen of Death, and the hard drive gave up the ghost, the security screens shorted out, the circuit breaker covering the office tripped, etc.)

“Wish granted,” Jean said.

“Good,” Sandi said, she then went back to her work.

Daria and Quinn approached the principal’s office. They had heard Stacy being called to the office and had left their respective classes. They had met outside the Cafeteria.

“Quinn, wait. You don’t want her to see you,” Daria said.

“Good idea, Daria,” Quinn said.

They cautiously approached the office. As they approached the office they smelt something.

“Eeewww! What’s that?”

“Knockout gas,” Daria said, covering her nose.

“How would you know?” Quinn asked, backing off from the door.

“Research for Melody Powers,” Daria said as she followed her sister.

“Okay...” Quinn said, recognising the name as a creation of Daria’s for her writing.

“Someone must have wished for that. It is not likely that Ms. Li would just play around with that stuff,” Daria said.

“I guess. But who?” Quinn asked.

“No idea, at least no immediate idea,” Daria said, after some thought. There were many students in the school that she thought would want to knock out the Principal, Sandi was only one of them, but it wouldn’t make sense to blame any person without any more proof.

“What do we do now?” Quinn asked.

“Go back to class. Ms. Li will wake up in a few hours, rather groggy, but mostly ok,” Daria said. She was sure that the principal wouldn’t be adversely affected in the immediate future.

“Ok,” Quinn said. They both went back to class.

At the beginning of Recess, Sandi ran out of the music classroom into the quad.

‘Everyone is after me and the emerald!’ she thought. She grabbed the emerald and said; “I wish that I will time-warp forwards to the end of recess.”

Sandi disappeared forwards 25 minutes, but the emerald didn’t! It fell to the ground.

A minute after Sandi had wished herself to the end of recess; Jennifer Burns (a junior) found it and picked it up. “What is this?” She asked, in her soft and relaxed voice. She absentmindedly rubbed it. Jean then appeared. “Eep!”

“Your wishes are my commands,” Jean said.

“So, you’re the genie that they are saying that Sandi found?” Jennifer asked.

“I am,” Jean said.

“Ok,” Jennifer said.

Jean and Jennifer approached the library and met with one of Jennifer’s sophomore friends, Kristen Leung-Bell.

“Is that Jean?” Kristen asked. ‘How did she get away from Sandi? She has to be around here somewhere,’ she thought.

“Yes. I found the emerald,” Jennifer said.

“Is it the genuine article?” Kristen asked, sceptically

“Yes. Jean appeared when I rubbed it,” Jennifer said.

“That may be just a coincidence,” Kristen said.

“Ok, I wish that the school buildings would shake for 12 seconds,” Jennifer said, hoping that not too much damage would be caused by such shaking...

Elias was sitting against the Science Block, eating his packed recess when the building started vibrating. ‘This is definitely unusual,’ he thought. He decided to look for Jean. ‘What are you up to now, Sandi?” he mused. He hoped that Sandi wasn’t going to experiment with trying to change the fabric of reality...

Chipmunk and Anna were in the Science Block. “Why are we going up there a second time?” Chip asked as they started going up the stairs to the second floor.

“We haven’t explored all of it,” Anna said. Then the buildings started shaking. Chip slipped and fell down a few steps, landing on her buttocks.

“Ouch!” she exclaimed. “Just what Lawndale needs; an earthquake!” She said, with sharp sarcasm.

“Are you ok?” Anna asked. ‘She looks ok, but one cannot be too careful, she thought.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Good thing I didn’t break a leg. I would have been out of action for at least two months,” Chip said.

“Good,” Anna said. ‘She is so focused on her track career, isn’t she?” she thought. “Let’s go,” she continued, when the buildings stopped shaking.

“No, we need to go back down and see if people need help as a result of this earthquake,” Chip said.

“Good point,” Anna said.

“See, Kristen, the buildings were vibrating,” Jennifer said, a few moments after the buildings had stopped vibrating.

“Ok, that is the emerald. But where is Sandi?” Kristen asked. “She had it in Business Studies.”

“I don’t know. It was just on the ground,” Jennifer said. ‘I am sure that she had just lost it,’ she thought.

“Sandi thought that if she wished herself to the end of recess that the emerald would also time-warp forwards,” Jean said.

“So she is time warping forwards?” Jennifer asked.

Jane, having seen Jean with them, walked up. “So, here is the genie, but where is Sandi?” she asked.

“Time-warping through recess, apparently,” Kristen said.

“Interesting,” Jane said.

“Can I make a wish?” Kristen asked, wondering how powerful the genie/emerald combination was.

“Sure,” Jennifer said, handing her the emerald.

‘What is she doing?’ Jane wondered.

“I wish for zero gravity to be in the school’s buildings for the next minute and a half,” Kristen said.

“No!” Jane said. Whilst Daria had told her about Ms Li being knocked out she didn’t want to take any chances.

Jean granted the wish.

“No gravity! This is bad!” Elias said as he floated off the floor of the corridor in the Arts/Music/Home Economics Block in mid-stride. He started breast-stroking through the air, towards the corridor into the HSIE block. ‘Much more difficult doing this in air rather than water,’ he thought. He started launching himself off the walls to give himself more speed. ‘I hope this is quick enough!’

The slumbering Ms Li slowly rose above the floor as her breathing gave her a push away from the now non-gravitationally attractive floor.

Kevin Thompson and his girlfriend Brittany Taylor were ‘making out’ in the library when the gravity vanished. Brittany noticed the lack of gravity. She broke away from Kevin, “Kevvy, something’s wrong!” she said.

“There’s, like, no gravity or something, we’re floating!” Brittany said, with a squeak.

“Oh! Kevin said, finally noticing.

“I bet it has something to do with that Genie from yesterday,” Brittany said, twirling the end of one of her pig-tails around her finger.

“What from yesterday, Babe?” Kevin asked.

“The Genie. You did hear the rumours, didn’t you, Kevvy?” Brittany asked. ‘I am sure that he heard about it. Even if he didn’t understand right away,’ she thought.

“Um, sure,” the unsure Kevin said.

The librarian then approached the Quarterback and Cheerleader couple (having moved around via grabbing the bookshelves [as a result they were slowly spinning]). “You need to leave the library,”

“But, how?” Brittany asked.

“Climb along the shelves and then launch yourselves out the door,” the librarian said.

“Are you sure?” Kevin asked.

“Yes,” Michaela said.

“Sure,” Brittany said. She immediately began moving. She was quite agile in the zero-g environment and was soon on her way.

Kevin, however, was a completely different story. He flailed about, sending books floating all over the place. The librarian had to grab him and drag him out from between the shelves. “Sandi and Jean have gone far enough,” she was muttering.

Brittany reached the door and turned around. She waited for Kevin and the librarian to clear the area of the shelves.

Ted floated out a door and fell down. “Ow!” he said. He got up and then ran back through the door, from a standing start. “Aaaggggggggh,”

“Sandi is apparently time-warping past recess. Apparently she didn’t take into account the fact that the emerald wouldn’t be following her,” Jane said.

“Who was responsible for the zero gravity?” she asked.

Jane and Jennifer looked at Kristen.

“Bad idea, much of the school is now a mess,” Daria said.

“Right,” Kristen said, under the pressure of Daria’s glare. “I wish that the mess created by the zero gravity situation would be resolved.”

Jean smiled and granted the wish.

“How am I going to get this cleaned up by next week?” Michaela Daniels said, ignoring Kevin and Brittany’s making out in the mess. Then Kristen’s second wish was granted. The mess started cleaning itself up. Kevin was oblivious to it, but Brittany did notice and broke off from ‘Kevvy’. “Wow!” she said.

“That’s convenient,” Michaela said when the process was complete.

“Ok, that was a bad idea,” Kristen said, handing the emerald to Daria.

“Yeah,” Daria said.

“Yeah, what would you wish for, Amiga?” Jane asked, with a smirk.

“A herd of beautiful wild ponies running free across the plains?” Daria stated. She was then surprised by the wish granting sound. “What?”

“Looks like you have made a wish!” Jane said.

“It was a cynical joke!” Daria said, to Jean.

“Remember, mischievous genie?” Jean said. Then a rumbling sound could be heard.

“Uh, oh,” Daria said.

Ted, Stacy, Quinn, Tiffany and Elias exited the Music/Art/Home Economics Block into the fields behind the school as the mess caused by the zero gravity situation cleaned itself up.

“Wee are loooking heere?” Tiffany asked.

“It seems a good place to start,” Quinn said.

“Hi Quinn.” It was Torii. She was hiding behind the M/A/HE Block after having come down from the roof when recess had begun.

“What are you doing here?” Quinn asked.

“Hiding from Ms Li. I don’t want her to find out about that emerald thing,” Torii said.

“True,” Quinn said.

“We think that Sandi has somehow lost it, and that someone else found it and wished for zero gravity in the school buildings for a short time,” Stacy said.

“So you were in there when that happened?” Torii asked.

“Yes,” Quinn said.

“We are aalsoo loooking for Jeean.”

“I guess so,” Torii said.

“I’m coming too,” Brooke Peters said, from where she was nearby.

“Cool. The more people, the better,” Quinn said. But then they heard a rumbling sound. And then a horse procured by Daria’s wish appeared. They all squealed and hugged each other tightly...

“I shall do so,” Daria said. She held up the emerald and wished. “I wish that the herd of wild ponies will appear somewhere far away from Lawndale!”

Jean looked at Daria with a quizzical look and said. “You are thinking of a specific place, aren’t you?”

The look on Daria’s face (and her surface thoughts) answered Jean’s question. “Granting wish!” she said with relish.

The herd disappeared from the back of Lawndale High School

Highland, Texas
The herd appeared behind Highland High School. Two moronic teen boys were sitting on a log near a fire-ant nest staring at said nest. They did not take notice of the rumbling at first. “I miss Diarrhoea,” one of them said. The other one started to say something, but they then noticed the ponies bearing down upon them. They got up and ran away, screaming...

Lawndale
“The herd is now in Texas,” Jean said.

“Good,” Daria said with a smirk.

“You wished the herd to your old town, didn’t you?” Jane asked.

“Am I that predictable?”

The herd disappeared. The group let go of each other. “Let’s go before anything else serious happens,” Quinn said.

“Definitely!” Stacy said.

“That wasn’t good,” Anna said, noting the disappearance of the herd.

“We must be prepared, especially if is a group of fellow seniors,” Chip said.

“Definitely,” Anna said, a bit absent-mindedly. Chip was slightly concerned about Anna’s absent-mindedness but her concern about the emerald overrode that. They exited the Science Block.

“Scarlett, Elias Howarth is approaching,” Tananda Watts said.

“Don’t worry, Tan,” Scarlett Hawkins-Le Faye said. The reason why Tananda had warned Scarlett was that Elias had had a crush on her the previous year. It wasn’t clear whether that was still the case...

“Have you seen an emerald, Sandi Griffin or Jean Jenner around here?” Torii asked.

“I guess that explains those ponies appearing and disappearing,” Scarlett said, fingering her ankh in an attempt to not look at Elias.

Scarlett had known that that something was up since Wednesday afternoon. It was an intuitive sense. She knew that a series of events was going to change Lawndale permanently in the latter part of February.

“So, are you coming with?” Quinn asked.

“Sure,” Scarlett said.

“I will come too,” Tananda said.

They followed the other five into the quad between the M/A/HE and Science Blocks.

“Look! Jean is with Kristen, Jennifer, Jane and Daria,” Scarlett said, when she sighted them near the library (which was still festooned in the streamers that Torii had wished for earlier).

“Then I am sure that is where the emerald is,” Elias said.

“I am sure that it is,” Scarlett said.

“I hope you are right,” Quinn said.

“But where would Sandi be?” Stacy asked.

“No idea,” Scarlett said.

Elias, Scarlett and Quinn jogged up the group near the library, with Stacy, Tananda, Ted and Tiffany trailing behind.
“Jennifer, did you wish for the zero gravity?” Elias asked.

“Actually it was I,” Kristen said.

“Not a good idea, Kristen,” Elias said.

“I’m aware of that now, Elias,” Kristen said, apologetically.

“Who wished for that stampede?” Quinn asked.

“That was Jean being mischievous,” Daria said.

“Ok,” Quinn said.

“I wished the herd to a very deserving place in Texas though,” Daria said.

Quinn got it. “You just had to torment those two one more time didn’t you?”

“So, where is Sandi?” Stacy asked.

“Time-warping past recess,” Daria said.

“Apparently the emerald wouldn’t go with,” Jane said.

“Okaay,” Tiffany said.

They talked for a while, wondering about what would happen when Sandi reappeared. Jodie, Mack, Jeffy, Jamie and Joey joined them.

Two minutes before the end of recess, Tiffany had the emerald. “I wiish for a lot of raain,” she said, wondering what would happen. The wish-ripples went up into the sky and cumulonimbus clouds immediately began concentrating over Lawndale. There was a clap of thunder.

“Tiffany!” Daria and Quinn exclaimed in unison. It began pouring. There was a flash of lightning close to the school.

“That was definitely not a good idea!” Jane and Jennifer said. They both made actions to grab Tiffany. She slipped away, as the rain increased in intensity. There was another clap of thunder and lightning hit the football stands next to the school.

Most of the group immediately dashed into the library (off which the rain was stripping the streamers). Stacy and Kristen dashed after Tiffany towards the M/A/HE Block.

As she neared the Music/Arts/Home Economics block, Tiffany slipped over. The emerald fell out of her hand and rolled into a nearby puddle. “Oh no-oo!” she exclaimed. Stacy and Kristen came up. “The emeraaald, I’ve lost it!” she said.

“Oh no! Lawndale may flood!” Stacy said. Indeed, much of the quad was awash.

“Here it is!” Kristen said. She threw the emerald to Sandi and ran off, following Stacy.

“I wish that Tiffany and I were in class,” Sandi wished.

Quinn, Joey, Jeffy and Jamie met in the history class. Mr DeMartino was looking out at the flooding quad.
“Why is it that students should find something so powerful!” he said.

“No idea, Mr DeMartino,” Jamie said.

“I wasn’t talking to you, Mr White!”

Then Sandi and Tiffany appeared, bringing with them some rain, and a patch of ground, including mud, grass and some puddles.

“I wish that the rain currently falling in Lawndale will stop,” Sandi said.

“Wheeere is Jean?” Tiffany asked.

“She is talking to Daria and Jodie,” Quinn said.

“But now the classroom is a mess!” Mr DeMartino said.

“Really, Jean’s mischievousness is going too far,” Sandi said. She was wondering about what happened earlier, when the emerald didn’t come through the time-warp with her.

“Wish it clean, Ms Griffin!” Anthony said.

“Of course,” Sandi said. She then wished the classroom clean and her and Tiffany unsoaked.

Stacy ran through the corridor towards the classroom. She and Kristen were late to History.

“So, it is only going to get worse?” Daria asked Jean.

“Much worse,” Jean said. Daria crossed her arms and stared at her. “I can’t predict what will happen,” she continued.

“Actually, you have been talking as if you do know what is going to happen,” Daria said.

“Like you have some foresight or something,” Jane said.

“Golly, you’re good, Daria,” Jean said.

“And?” Daria prompted.

“And I got the information from time travellers back in the sixties during an ‘incident’ over in Oakwood. All that I’ll say about this afternoon is that I won’t be leaving the school with Sandi,” Jean said.

“Who are you leaving with?” Jodie said.

“I am not saying anything further,” Jean said. She then vanished, going to the History classroom.

“Daria, she didn’t say that the emerald won’t leave with Sandi, just that she won’t be leaving with Sandi,” Jane said.

Daria smirked “There’s wiggle room,’ she said. She then lead the way to class.

An hour after recess, Ms Li came to. “What just happened?” she asked herself. She looked around at the office. It was a mess, both from the shorting out of all the equipment and the brief zero gravity happening. She glanced at the clock. It was stopped at 9:35. She looked at her watch. The digital component was blank, but the analogue component was also stuck at 9:35.
“Great! This will be very expensive to fix!” she said. ‘Unless, of course, those rumours have a basis in fact!’ she thought. She examined the equipment again. It was quite dead. ‘I will have to use the phone in the faculty lounge,’ she thought. She left the office.

Ms Li entered the Faculty Lounge. It was empty, except for the barely noticeable Head Maths teacher, Jasper Ewing. She went over to the phone. She called the technicians whom usually worked on the school’s technical issues.

After talking to the technicians the Principal went to the computer in the faculty lounge. She then logged out and then logged in using her administrator’s password. She soon found that the school’s backup server (in the basement beneath the library) was still up (she didn’t know that it too was affected by Jean’s tampering the previous morning).
She soon found that all of the information from that morning, (including recordings of the aborted questioning of Andrea and Torii) were there.
“Good,” she said.

“Possibly, you could ask Upchuck whether that would be possible. But I have actually seen the genie, and there was that zero gravity happening earlier today.”

“I was outside, and I will talk to Charles about it,” ‘The Head’ said. He stepped aside, allowing Elias into the room.

Elias returned the Babylon 5 videos to the Science Fiction Club’s VHS library. “Did you enjoy those episodes?” Jenna Oberton-Schwartz, whom had checked the videos back in, asked.

“Definitely, Clark doesn’t know what is coming to him,” Elias said. He was curious as to the rest of the series though. “Is the Earth Civil War arc as good as the Shadow War arc?”

Jenna smiled and said “That would be telling.”

“That’s ok,” Elias said. He thought of something. “Do we have any genie related fiction here, given recent events.

Jenna wasn’t as sceptical as ‘The Head’. “We do have some Fantasy works here, but I am not sure whether they would have a genie as an important character.

A few minutes later their search had come up negative. “Oh well, I will just borrow this Conan,” Elias said.

“Good choice,” Jenna, being a large Robert E. Howard fan, said.

Anna approached Sandi from behind, in a crowded corridor, and grabbed the emerald off her, or at least tried to. “What are you doing?” Sandi and Chip said in accidental unison. (Most of the other students dispersed...)

“I wish I was near the library, with this emerald,” Anna said. She and the emerald vanished.

“This is not good!” Chip said.

Sandi glared at Chip. “Talk, you like, betrayer of a Track Star!” she said.

“I had no idea that Anna wanted the emerald for herself,” Chip said, nervously.

“Oh, Really?” Sandi asked, sceptically.

“Honest!” Chip said.

“Right! You are going to help me get that emerald back!” Sandi said.

“How?” Chip asked.

“Come with me!” Sandi said, with an expression that said; ‘This is non-negotiable!’

Elias was eating his packed lunch near the library with his friend Samara Collins when Anna appeared out of thin air.

Samara was taken aback. “Now I have seen everything,” she said.

“Why does she have the emerald?” Elias asked.

Anna turned to Elias and Samara. “Why should that Sophomore Fashion Geek have it?” she asked.

“I don’t have an answer to that,” Elias said.

“But, did you just grab it off Sandi?” Samara asked.

“Yeah, I did. So what!” Anna said, defiantly.

“Look,” Samara said, to Elias. He looked where she was pointing and could see Sandi and Chip emerge from the main building using the exit near the Cafeteria.

“This is going to be a very long lunch time,” Elias said.

“I suppose so,” Samara said.

Chip ran ahead of Sandi towards the library. “Sandi’s on the warpath,” she shouted as she approached.

Anna handed the emerald to Elias. He saw that Sandi had noticed that manoeuvre... “Yikes!” he said, running away, around the library and then towards the M/A/HE Block.

Elias exited the M/A/HE Block into the HSIE block. He saw that Sandi was close behind him.

“Like, give me that emerald, Elias!” Sandi shouted. ‘Et tu, Elias,’ she thought, remembering the most recent Shakespeare play that Mr O’Neill had tried to teach the sophomore class.

‘I can’t keep running, I have to give it to someone else,’ he thought. ‘Someone I can trust.’ He thought for a second. “I wish that I was where Jennifer Burns is,” he said. He vanished from Sandi’s view.

Sandi skidded to a stop. ‘One does not need an emerald to know where a specific person is,’ she thought. She closed her eyes and concentrated. “Finndu mann sem heitir: Jennifer Burns,” she said.
Sandi’s awareness reached outwards. She hoped that ‘Burnout Girl’ was relatively close. The locate ability was not reliable at distances greater than 100 meters.
At first she perceived the area at the intersection between the 2 buildings of the school, however within a few seconds she was perceiving all of the Music/Arts/Home Economics block and the northern half of the HSIE block, as well as part of the Quad and the sports facilities. She found Jennifer (with Elias) outside a history classroom two thirds of the way down the HSIE block on the second floor (at 110 meters).
“Right,” she said, snapping back to herself. Normally she would rest after such an experience (at least that was what her mother had drilled into her), but she then dashed off.

Near the HSIE block, Scarlett froze ‘That’s strange’ she thought. It was like a presence had briefly appeared around her. ‘Strange things are definitely afoot in Lawndale this month. She hoped that it was linked with the genie. ‘Two separate things would be too much to deal with.

“Something wrong?” Tananda asked.

“Something,” Scarlett said, enigmatically.

Jennifer was surprised (almost scared) when Elias appeared out of thin air. She recovered quickly. “Why do you have the emerald?” she asked.

“A senior took it off Sandi, and to escape her wrath she gave it to me. Sandi thought we were in collusion,” Elias said.

“So you wished yourself here?” Jennifer asked.

“I ran off first, but she followed. Then I wished myself here,” Elias said.

“Ok, but what now?”

“Keep it out of her hands?” Elias asked. ‘It may be for the best. There is no telling what she may eventually think of,’ he thought.

“Maybe,” Jennifer said, thinking.

Whilst Jennifer was in thought, Elias saw Sandi up the corridor. “Yikes!” he said.

Jennifer looked in that direction. “Yikes, indeed,” she said. “I’ll take the emerald, keep it out of her hands.”

Jennifer grimaced, she hated that nickname. ‘Just because I am relaxed a lot of the time...’ She found the stairs. “I wish for zero gravity inside the school buildings, whilst Sandi is inside them, until the end of the lunch,” she leapt down the stairs; “from now,” she said. The wish was granted...

A while earlier
‘The Head’ found Upchuck, otherwise known as Charles Ruttheimer III, down the hall from the classroom where the Science Fiction Club held its unofficial meetings.

“Charles? May I ask you a question?” he said.

“Ask away, my Head fan friend,” Charles said.

“You know how that there is now an extra floor on the building we are currently in?” the Head asked.

“One would be blind to miss something like that,” Charles said, wondering what his friend was getting at.

“Would it be possible for Ms Li to hide its construction whilst making it appear that there is a normal roof on the top of the building?”

Charles thought for a moment. “It would be nearly impossible,” he said.

“Really?”

“Consider the sunlight, and the shade cast by the building each morning and evening. If the construction of the additional floor was hidden from view from the ground, or across the quad, the construction and whatever is hiding it would cast an additional amount of shade on the ground and the other buildings.”

“And you would be at the school early or late enough to know this?”

“Of course I am, extra credit you know, and to view some of the luscious ladies as they arrive or leave!” Charles said, adding his customary growl.

“You said nearly impossible.”

“Yes, it would be possible to use mirrors to redirect the sunlight, and that of the lovely moon and stars, around the construction zone, but such a rig would be very expensive, and someone would notice it at that point.” Charles’ voice dropped to a whisper “It would also be out of the budget range of any public high school principal, even that of our Machiavellian Ms Li.”

“So you are saying that there is a genie?”

“Occam’s Razor, my friend, Occam’s Razor.”

Then Jennifer’s wish was granted. Both Charles and ‘The Head’ started drifting upwards.

“Also; note this happenstance, do you feel any harness?” Charles asked.

“No!” ‘The Head’ said, distressed.

“We are feeling like we’re in space, or in free fall, not like we’re being suspended. This is way beyond the abilities of any stage magician, even those of the great Houdini himself.”

“Ok.”

The Cafeteria; a while earlier
Daria and Jane were in, eating lunch, when Brittany came up to them. “Hi, Daria, Hi Jane,” she said.

“Hi Brittany, what is it?” Daria asked, seeing that the cheerleader had a quizzical expression on her face.

“Um, you know the events at today’s recess?” Brittany asked.

“Yes?” Daria asked.

“And that there is a genie?” Brittany asked.

“Yes?” Daria asked, wondering what Brittany was getting at.

“So, do you think that this is going to, like, change things in Lawndale?” she asked.

Daria and Jane looked at each other, wondering how to answer Brittany’s question. Daria spoke first. “Most likely it is.”

“Um, any idea how much?” Brittany asked.

“I don’t know Brittany. It depends on who gets the emerald and what they wish for,” Jane said.

“Also on who finds out about it. For example, if there is no telling what would happen if Ms. Li for instance, finds out about it,” Daria said.

Brittany thought, twirling her hair, and came to a conclusion. “Eep!”

“Exactly,” Jane said.

“Don’t worry, we have a plan to distract her,” Daria said, trying to be reassuring.

“Quinn thought it up,” Jane said.

That wasn’t reassuring to Brittany. “Eep!”

Daria glared at Jane. “It is actually a good plan,” she said, as Jane shrugged.

“So, even though you think there are going to be drastic changes, you are, like, trying to keep them from getting too drastic?” Brittany asked.

“Yes,” Daria and Jane said. However, at that moment, Jennifer’s wish was granted.

“Not again!” Brittany squealed.

“Great! Now we have to institute Quinn’s plan!” Jane said.

“What sort of plan is it anyway?” Brittany asked.

“A distraction,” Jane said.

“For it to work, we will have to get her out of the building,” Daria said.

“Let’s go!” Brittany exclaimed. She pushed (jumped) off the table towards the doors, sending the table into Daria and Jane’s laps.

Quinn was already quite ahead of them, practically bouncing off the walls, floor and ceiling.

“But how is she going to get Ms. Li out of the building by herself?” Joey asked, confused.

“Stacy? Staceee?”

Andrea was surfing the internet from a workstation on the library’s upper floor, when the gravity went out. ‘Great! This is going too far. What is that Sandi up to?’ she thought. Feeling nausea, she slowly ‘walked’ away from the computer.

Jennifer reached the bottom of the stairs and grabbed the door. She looked back. She saw that Sandi was not yet following. ‘But she will,’ she mused. She looked out into the corridor. She could see a mass of students struggling to move in the zero g environment. She crossed the corridor to a classroom and went inside.

Elias watched Sandi struggle to follow Jennifer towards the stairs. He then slowly moved in the opposite direction.

Jennifer exited the building through the window and then watched for Sandi through the classroom.

“What is going on?” Kristen asked.

“Oh,” Jennifer said, and filled Kristen in on what had occurred.

“The genie, we must find her,” the Head said, in distress, a minute after the gravity had gone out.

“Enjoy this experience whilst it lasts, my friend,” Upchuck said.

“I don’t want to enjoy this experience!”

“Feeling sick?”

“Yes!”

“hmm, I will try to help you outside then,” Upchuck said.

“Good!”

Brittany, Daria and Jane exited the cafeteria and went towards Ms Li’s office.

Sandi got to the bottom of the stairs and saw Jennifer outside through the classroom. She slowly moved out into the corridor and closed the door. She jumped off the door as fast as she could.

“Sandi is coming,” Kristen said. Jennifer handed her the emerald.

“Take it, I’ll hold her off!” Jennifer said.

“Are you sure?” Kristen asked.

“I am sure,” Jennifer said, as Sandi approached the window.

“Ok,” Kristen said, she ran off, towards the library.

Sandi then exited the window feet first. As she cleared the building she somersaulted forwards and landed on her feet with only a slight stumble. Also as she cleared the building the gravity was restored inside.

“Give me that emerald!” Sandi deadpanned.

“Kristen has it,” Jennifer said.

‘The Head’ and Upchuck fell to the floor as gravity resumed.

“Ow! But that is better,” ‘The Head’ said.

“I need to find that Jean!” Charles said. He growled “Feisty!”

“Take me outside first!”

“Of course,” Charles said, as he started leading his friend towards the exit into the quad.

Daria, Jane and Brittany were approaching Ms Li’s office as the gravity resumed.

Brittany and Jane landed on both feet, but Daria landed on her behind. “Ouch!” she exclaimed. Jane helped Daria to get to her feet.

“The gravity is back!” Brittany said.

“But there is no telling how long that would last,” Daria said.

Brittany twirled her hair “You’re right!” she concluded.

“And Ms Li may already be aware of the happening,” Jane said.

“True,” Brittany said. They continued towards the office.

Quinn fell as the gravity resumed.

“Ouch!” she exclaimed. She then got up and continued running down the corridor, dodging people as she went. “Excuse me!”

“How maany more times, are weee going to float?” The effects of being weightless made Tiffany more confused than usual.

“Guys? Where’s Quinn?” Stacy asked, wondering where Quinn had gone.

“She went ahead to try to get Ms Li out of the building,” Joey said, his voice showing his confusion.

Stacy could hear his confusion. “Let’s go and help her,” she said.

Chip and Anna were still near the library. They had argued and were now looking at each other uncomfortably.

“Give me that emerald!” Sandi deadpanned, shortly after she had exited the building.

“Kristen has it,” Jennifer said, with some hesitation.

“Great!” Sandi exclaimed. She looked and saw Kristen near the library, heading towards the science block. “Is this like, a conspiracy or something?” she asked. ‘wouldn’t surprise me,’ she thought.

“I don’t think so,” Jennifer said.

“I think it is!” Sandi said. ‘She is definitely hiding something.’

“It isn’t,” Jennifer insisted.

“Right,” Sandi said, she then attempted to run off, and would have, had not Jennifer tackled her...

Charles and the ‘Head’ exited the Science block. However, the running Kristen crashed into Upchuck and dropped the emerald!

“Ms Leung-Bell, I didn’t know that you cared!”

“Leave me alone, Upchuck!” Kristen growled, whilst ‘The Head’ shook his head. She then realised that she had dropped the emerald. ‘If I have lost it, maybe Sandi won’t find it,’ she thought. However, she didn’t want Upchuck to have it either... ‘That would make this situation worse for all the girls...’

“What have you lost?” It wasn’t Upchuck. It was Kristen’s friend Cindy Brolsma, whom was walking up behind the uber-unpopular male and his Alien Invasion cartoon fan friend, from the Science Fiction club informal meeting (which had broken up following the gravitational negation).

Kristen decided to get it out into the open. She looked at Cindy and said; “The emerald, the cause of all this mess. Jennifer gave it to me, and then I ran into Heffner Junior here.”

Upchuck grinned ‘If I find it first, I can wish Jean here!’ he thought. Of course that was not all he thought...

‘The Head’ started backing away. He didn’t want to mess with powers beyond his comprehension (and he didn’t want to embarrass himself [any more than he had possibly had already] in front of Cindy, not that he would admit that, of course).

Charles, Cindy and Kristen started looking for the emerald.

Brittany, Daria and Jane arrived in front of Ms Li’s office, at the same time as Quinn. Quinn was panting. “Eeeewww! Sweat!” she said. She noticed the other three. “Good, you’re here. I don’t have to get her out by myself.”

“Good,” Jane said.

Brittany opened the door and looked into the badly lit mess. The others followed her. “What happened here?” Jane asked.

Daria flipped the switch, the light didn’t come on. “No idea, but it looks like everything in here is broken,” she said.

“She isn’t here!” Brittany squeaked after some looking.

“Nine thirty five,” Jane said, looking at the clock.

“Quinn, wouldn’t you say that was shortly before we got here before recess?” Daria asked.

“That would be about right, Daria,” Quinn said.

“Yes, Quinn, we got here about Nine forty, and smelt the knockout gas. I guess that whatever happened that it happened at nine thirty five,” Daria said, as she leaned against the desk.

“Great deduction, Morgendorffer, but where would Ms Li be now?” Jane asked.

“Not sure, but the most likely place would be the faculty lounge,” Daria said.

“Good idea,” Jane said. She agreed that was the most likely place where Ms Li would be. She and the Morgendorffer sisters left the office.

Andrea exited the library and saw many students exiting the building into the Quad. ‘That is to be expected,’ she thought.

Sandi and Jennifer were still fighting on the ground when Mr DeMartino came up to them “Well, Well, what do we have here? Ms Burns and Ms Griffin, mudwrestling!” He said, almost shouting. He was secretly amused by the antics. Anyone who would knock Sandi down a few notches was good in his book (Although Jennifer rarely got above a C in History, that at least was a lot better than Kevin!).

“We don’t want Ms Li getting a hold of the genie,” Quinn said as she came in.

“She would make this school, and maybe the town, worse!” Stacy said, as she followed.

“It would be really baaad! Like ,worse than with Sand-di,” Tiffany said.

Ms Defoe was in thought. “I see what you are getting at,” she said.

“Ms Li’s office is completely wreaked,” Daria said.

“Like, all her equipment appears to be all broken and stuff,” Brittany said.

“Uh, yeah. Where would she go if her office is out of commission and she is not here?” Daria asked.

Ms Defoe thought again. “Either the Language Arts faculty office, or the server-room in the basement,” she said.

“Language Arts?” Stacy asked.

“Server room in the basement?” Daria asked. She knew there was a server room in the library, but had not heard about one in the basement.

“There is one. I’m not sure what it’s used for though,” Ms Defoe said, her tone telling the students (even Tiffany) that she did know what it was used for (or at least suspected).

“Great!” Daria deadpanned.

“Now we have to search two places!” Jane said.

“The sooner we leave, the sooner we will find her,” Daria said. However, before they could decide anything else the gravity was negated (as Sandi followed Cindy into the science block).

“Not again!” Brittany said.

Elias and Samara met in the Arts level of the Arts/Musc/Home Ec block. Samara had followed after Sandi had gone into that building. Elias had gone back after he was sure that Sandi had followed Jennifer down the stairs.

“Where’s the emerald now?” Samara asked.

“Jennifer Burns has it,” Elias said.

“What happens now?” Samara asked.

“We hope that Lawndale survives this crisis. I don’t want to live in a post-apocalyptic county,” he said.

“Neither do I,” Samara said. Then the gravity was negated for the second time.

Cindy crawled along the hand rails, up the stairwell to the second level of the science block. She could hear Sandi’s exclamations as she attempted to reach the staircase, she was almost on her heels.

As she exited the stairwell, Cindy looked up the corridor for the stairs up to the new floor. “Come back down here and give me that emerald, Cindy Brolsma!” Sandi called up the stairs.

“Yeah Right!” Cindy yelled back. She pushed herself away from the door from the stairwell, down the corridor, towards her destination, slamming the door in the process. ‘That will slow her down a bit,’ she thought.

Cindy emerged into the new floor. “This does feel weird,” she said. A senior member of the Science Fiction Club had overheard Chip and Anna talking about the new floor in class and had told Cindy about it.
She didn’t particularly want to go into any of the more Frankenstein-ishof the new science labs, but she figured that there would be at least something of use to stall Sandi in her chase of the emerald.

Andrea, having talked to Chip about what had happened at the beginning of lunch, left the area of the library and headed towards the Music/Arts/Home Economics Block.

After four minutes of looking for Cindy amongst the creepy classrooms in the new floor of the science block, Sandi found her near the back of one of the creepier rooms examining various equipment.
She saw that Cindy had a Bunsen burner going (the flame looked like a ball, but still functioned in the zero-g environment), heating an unknown mixture in a test tube, in one of the many fume hoods that were spaced around the edge of the room.

“Cindy!” Sandi exclaimed.

“Eep!”

“Give me that emerald. I found it, and I won’t use it to change Lawndale for the worse!” Sandi said.

“I wouldn’t either!” Cindy retorted. ‘I am sure that her definition of ‘for the worse’ would be different to mine,’ she thought.

“Oh, Really?” Sandi asked.

“Really,” Cindy said. They stared at each other in a stand-off for about fifteen seconds, before Sandi launched herself through the door, towards Cindy.
Cindy moved aside at the last second, causing Sandi to crash into the bench that Cindy had been holding on to.

“Ouch!” Sandi exclaimed. She glared at Cindy whom was moving along the bench, carrying the equipment that she had been gathering.

“Yikes!” Cindy exclaimed. She grabbed the emerald. “I wish for a door that will open to anywhere else in this school.”

The wish was granted. The bench, and windows, parted and a door appeared. The door had a more medieval look than the rest of the doors on that floor, but it still looked similar to a door that wouldn’t be out of place elsewhere in the school, nonetheless.
“Cool, I didn’t think that would work,” Cindy said, before opening the door and pulling herself though it. The door closed before Sandi could follow her.

“Great!” Sandi said. She tried to think about how the door worked. ‘I guess she intended it so that the person just thinks about their destination within the school.’ She thought about following Cindy to wherever she went and tried the door.

The door didn’t open, no matter hard she tried. Even applying her largest amount of telekinesis on the handle didn’t work. ‘Stupid door.’

She thought of other ways of following Cindy, including the ‘locate ability’. ‘Unfortunately it is likely that she is further away than Burnout Girl was earlier,’ she thought.

She remembered the previous time that she had attempted to use the ability for a distance much greater than 100 metres.

5 years earlierSandi had just used the ‘locate ability’ for the first time following her mother’s coaching (looking for Sam in a different room in the house) and she was eager to try it again.

“That was, like, cool,” Sandi said.

“Sandi, remember to keep it a secret!” Linda said.

“Like our other abilities, of course!” Sandi retorted. Her mother had told her about some ancestors whom had been burnt at the stake because of their abilities, back in the late 17th Century.

Linda just glared at her daughter, as if to say ‘don’t use your sarcasm on me, daughter!’

“How far does it work?” Sandi asked. She was curious as to how away she could possibly detect someone.

“Approximately 100 meters, any further and it is vague. The greater the distance, the less chance that you would find them,” Linda said.

Sandi decided to try to find one of her friends. She remembered the Icelandic words and spoke, “Finndu mann sem heitir: Stacy Rowe!”

“Sandi!” Linda started, but she saw that her daughter was already using her ability, so she didn’t interfere.

Sandi’s awareness reached outwards. At first she perceived the Griffin residence at 512 Grandstaff Drive. As her awareness reached outwards the streetscape of Lawndale grew more vague. Half a minute later she perceived Stacy’s house at 324 Eichler Street, as if in a dream, and only in black and white.

She snapped out of it, rather exhausted. “So, tired,” she said.

“What did you see?” Linda asked.

“I only saw her house. Black and white. Very blurry,” Sandi said quietly. She felt like she needed to go to sleep.

Linda told Sandi that the ability uses a lot of energy, especially if it is used over 100 meters.

End of Flashback

“Right,” Sandi thought, after she had recalled those events, decided to try to open the door into the Library and then try to locate Cindy.
She grabbed the door handle whilst thinking about going to the Library.

In the middle of the upper floor of the Library bookshelves parted and the door appeared, Sandi then opened it from the new floor of the Science Block.

She held the door open and moved so that she was in the doorway. “Finndu mann sem heitir: Cindy Brolsma!”

Once again Sandi’s perception expanded over Lawndale High. There was slight confusion where the two perception fields overlapped between the Science Block and the Library. Before the fields could enter the Science Block or the Library, Sandi found Cindy (rather vaguely) in the cafeteria.

Like earlier, Scarlett could feel ‘something’ surrounding her. “What is going on here?” she asked.

“Same as before?” Tananda asked.

“Yes, I don’t know what to make of it,” Scarlett said.

The few students still in the Cafeteria were surprised when a door suddenly appeared in the wall and opened.

Once she sighted Cindy, Sandi launched herself through the door.

Earlier
“Not again!” Brittany said, when the gravity was negated for a second time.

“Now we have to find Ms. Li,” Daria said.

“But we have to split into two groups,” Jane said.

“One group to the Server Room in the basement?” Stacy asked. ‘I don’t want to go down there,’ she thought.

“Yes, and the other to the Language Arts faculty office,” Daria said. “One has to wonder, why that faculty office? Why not another one?”

Upchuck, nodded, as he had actually listened in class when Mr DeMartino was going over local history.
“I suppose it would. The House of Bad Grades maybe, possibly Metalmouth...” Jennifer was about to mention more Lawndale-based urban legends, when Mr DeMartino glared at her.

“That enough of that, Jennifer!” he said.

“Sorry,” Jennifer said, she knew that the history teacher was touchy when it came to mentioning that particular urban legend in his presence.

“What are we going to do about about it?” Kristen asked, not sure how the local urban legends that she knew of would be connected to Sandi’s mysterious power.

“Keep an eye out for other unusual happenings that cannot be explained by the genie?” Jennifer wondered.

“Good idea, Ms Burns!” Mr DeMartino said.

“What else do we do now?” Kristen asked.

“Wait and see what happens next,” Mr DeMartino said.

They continued talking about various possibilities for about five more minutes.

Claire, Jane, Joey and Tiffany arrived outside the basement Server Room (it being below the Faculty Office, with the stairs being just down the hall).

“We have to be careful. The floor in front of the door has pressure sensors that will set off an alarm,” Claire said.

“But weee don’t have to use the flooor,” Tiffany said.

“True, but the gravity may return at any moment,” Claire said.

Tiffany realised that the art teacher was right.

“Right, we use the walls to get to the door and then push it open!” Joey said.

“Amazing,” Jane murmered. Joey was more intelligent than she gave him credit for.

Cindy saw Sandi emerge from the door into the Cafeteria. ‘She must have used a lot of trial and error,’ she thought.

As Sandi leapt from table to table, Cindy jumped to the side and began to think of ways to get out of the Cafeteria before Sandi caught up to her. She had an idea, and rubbed the emerald. Jean appeared, with a book in her hand. She let go of it, letting it float in mid-air.

“You had to interrupt my reading, didn’t you?” she asked.

“You knew that it was me?” Cindy asked quickly. (Sandi was still moving closer.)

“As soon as you wished for that door,” Jean said.

‘I guess that makes sense.’ “Anyway, can you block Sandi whilst I think of what to do next?” Cindy asked.

“Sure,” Jean said. She turned around and telekinetically moved tables between herself and Sandi. Then a meter thick wall of what appeared to be jello appeared, with those tables embedded in it.

“A wall of Jello?” Cindy asked sceptically “She would get through that.”

“She would if it were pure jello, yes,” Jean said. “But it isn’t pure jello. It has honey, chocolate, mentos, other confections and ‘surprises’, including baking soda being near orange juice, that will slow her down.

“Cool,” Cindy said. Indeed she could see the various chocolates and other confections here and there in the wall.

“Yes. If nothing else, I will be going back to the library,” Jean said. She grabbed the copy of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and vanished.

Cindy started moving away. ‘As much as I would like to see her get even more messy as a result of her trying to get through, I want to put as much distance between us as possible,’ she thought.

Sandi saw Jean appear next to Cindy. As she moved closer she saw that Jean was talking to Cindy, then some tables moved so as to approximate a wall. ‘That like, won’t stop me, Jean!’ she thought as the wall of jello appeared.

After Jean disappeared, she jumped off a table into the wall of jello. Then some of Jean’s ‘surprises’ in the form of pieces of hot chocolate, sticky molasses, hydrogen bubbles and bubblegum activated.

“Oowww! Jean! Cindy! I will get through there and I will get the emerald back.” She then jumped off the ceiling towards a spot where a table stuck out of the wall of jello. She then grabbed the table and pushed against one of the poles next to the servery.

All that resulted in was further explosions, resulting from vinegar meeting baking soda, spraying a mixture of jello, vegetable oils and acetate salts all over Sandi. ‘This is ridiculous,’ she thought, before thinking about it further.

Cindy watched Sandi’s second attempt. ‘That has to be frustrating,’ she thought. She then turned around, and went through the door. She decided to go through the HSIE block. ‘Maybe if she gets through that wall and manages to follow me I will give it to someone else.’

Brittany opened the door. “She is not here,” she said. Indeed the students could see various notes, written in Mr O’Neill’s writing, floating around.

“I hope that the others have better luck,” Quinn said.

“I wouldn’t count on that. We have to check the computers, see if she has been here,” Daria said.

“You know best, I suppose,” Stacy said, as she went to one of the computers.

“I’ll look too,” Quinn said, as she joined her.

Anthony DeMartino was concerned about Kristen. Whatever it was that Sandi had used on her seemed to have a lingering effect, Kristen had been talking slightly slower than usual. He could tell that Jennifer had noticed it too. ‘I hope it is not permanent,’ he thought. Charles Ruttheimer didn’t seem to notice.

Jennifer moved the teacher to the side and said in a slightly quieter voice than usual; “I think we need to take Kristen to the nurse’s office, she seems ‘sluggish’ for the lack of a better term.”

“Yes, Jennifer, I have noticed it too. You will have to take her there. I have to stay here, ensure that the situation does not get any further out of control,” he said. ‘I don’t see any other staff out here,’ he thought.

“Great,” Jennifer murmured.

After some convincing Jennifer and Kristen headed towards the school nurse’s office.

“Too late, I know that Jeannie Jenner is a wish granting genie!” The principal said when the door to the basement server room slammed open.

“How?” Tiffany asked.

“I am not stupid, Ms. Blum-Deckler. A relatively simple application of Occam’s Razor, if you know what that means. There is also plenty of evidence from the video cameras,” Ms. Li said.

‘Of course I know what that means. I do learn some things at this school,’ Tiffany thought “The simplest explanation is the best.”

“Wow!” Jane said, with raised eyebrows. She turned her attention to Ms Li. “What plans do you have regarding that genie?” she asked. She was about to say ‘emerald’ but realised that Ms Li might not have deduced its existence yet.

“Look! Whilst we are arguing here, more crazy events are happening in the school. The more those crazy events happen, the more likely that the events are going to draw attention!” Jane said.

Ms. Li was then in thought.

Ms. Defoe caught onto Jane’s line of thought. “Whilst the media wouldn’t ordinarily run with ‘paranormal’ events. I am sure that they would in this case,” she said.

“I see what you are getting at,” Ms. Li said, in thought. ‘If I get that genie, It won’t matter that much,’ she thought.

“You don’t want that attention! It will change everything! The news may already be getting out. It will certainly be out once everyone gets home,” Jane said.

Ms. Li thought some more. “I still don’t have to tell you my plans!” she said.

“Yes you do!” Ms. Defoe said.

“Great, it’s a sta-and-off,” Tiffany said to Joey.

Joey had an idea. “See if you can distract them whilst I try to look at what information she has.”

“How?” Tiffany asked.

“Do whatever you do to distract Sandi. Ask them if you look fat or something,” Joey said.

“Do I look fat?”

“You don’t look fat,” Joey said, as he tried to approach the computers.

Tiffany gulped, and then went into distraction mode; “Ms. Li-i, does this zero gravity make me look fat?”

Kristen and Jennifer approached the administration building. “Do you think you are up to zero gravity?” Jennifer asked.

“Yes,” Kristen said.

“Let’s go, and do what I do,” Jennifer said.

“Ok,” Kristen said.

They both backed up and then ran and jumped into the building. They kicked the door open to allow them to pass.

After a number of attempts, Sandi managed to get through the jello wall. She knew that Cindy had left the cafeteria, but thought that she wouldn’t have had gone far. Sandi then jumped towards the door out of the cafeteria.

A minute afterwards, Sandi emerged from the Cafeteria and saw Cindy at an intersection of corridors. Cindy also saw her and jumped away, towards the History, Language Arts, etc classrooms.

Sandi quickly followed.

After about six minutes of searching, Stacy and Daria concluded that there was no information on the Language Arts Department computers about the principal’s activities. All they found were various class notes written by Mr. O’Neill and the other Language Arts teachers.

“She has to be in the Basement Server Room,” Daria said.

“I agree,” Stacy said.

“But there are around ten minutes until class time. We may not make it.” Quinn said.

“Quinn, we have to try!” Daria said.

“Of course we do. I’m just stating the fact,” Quinn said.

“Let’s go,” Brittany said, starting to go out of the door.

“Of course,” Daria said. They then left the Language Arts faculty office.

Jennifer and Kristen entered the school nurse’s office. They found that there were already many students there, the microgravity environment giving them motion sickness.

‘Wouldn’t it be more efficacious to go outside?’ Jennifer thought.

“Are you either of you feeling nauseous too?” the nurse asked.

“Not really?” Jennifer said.

“What is the complaint?” the nurse asked with a strained tone.

“Kristen is slurring her voice after being hit by some strange energy,” Jennifer said.

“Strange energy?” the nurse asked dubiously.

“It had an electrical component, OK!” Kristen said.

“Yes, I can see that you are slurring slightly. I will have to check your vitals. Come with me,” she said.

“You are dubious about ‘strange energy’ whilst floating where there should be gravity?” Jennifer asked.

“I am experiencing this zero gravity, whatever is really causing it. I also see that new floor. But I haven’t experienced whatever may have affected Ms. Leung-Bell. So you said that it had an electrical component?”

“Yes. It had a feel similar to that when one is hit by a static shock,” Kristen said.

“It looked purple,” Jennifer said.

“Unless you have something meaningful to contribute, Ms. Burns, I suggest remaining silent,” the nurse said, as she got out her equipment.

“OK,” Jennifer said, as the nurse began her examination.

In the Basement Server Room, Joey was perplexedly looking at the computer records whilst argument amongst the other people in the room continued.

“Need help?” Joey started. He turned to see Jane right next to him.

“Relax,” she said, whilst making a shushing motion.

“You’re helping?” he asked.

“I have been known to do some artistic coding in my time,” she said.

“Really? I heard that you don’t do well in Maths.”

Jane wondered how he knew. “How do you know that?” she asked.

“Quinn told me,” Joey said.

‘I guess she overheard me telling Daria about my C- average slipping one time,’ Jane thought, turning back to the computer. “Let’s do this,” she said, the sound of the art teacher arguing with the principal quite prominent in the background.

Daria’s group crashed into Cindy as they rounded a corner. The emerald slipped out of Cindy’s grasp.

Daria also saw it. “Yes, get it!” she said, not trying to think of how this other girl managed to get her hands on it.

“Oops!” Cindy said.

Brittany grabbed Quinn, and pivoted on the corner of the walls, and so flung her off after the emerald.
“Get it!” she squeaked.

Quinn reached out for the emerald; “I wish we were all in the Basement Server Room right now!” she said, as her fingers briefly brushed the emerald.
There was a slight delay as the emerald figured out how to fit the incoming teens into the Basement Server Room, and all of them, Cindy included, disappeared from the corridor. However the emerald remained behind only shifted onto a different trajectory by Quinn’s brief touch...

The nurse completed her examination of Kristen. “You seem to be getting better. Your reflexes are as usual and your pupils are also normal,” she said.

“I don’t think so. I am still talking slowly!” Kristen said.

“Though that is improving,” Jennifer said, as more nauseous students entered the nurse’s office.

“Only a little bit,” Kristen said.

“True,” Jennifer said.

The nurse thought for few seconds. “Ok, you seem OK, but I will advise going to a doctor when school lets out, there may be some neurological issues affecting the speech center,” the nurse said.

“Or it could be psychosomatic! Jennifer, could you get Mrs. Manson?” Kristen objected.

“Honestly, I wouldn’t trust her,” Jennifer said. She checked her watch. “It’s about seven minutes until end of lunch, when this lack of gravity will cease to be an issue. We could wait.”

“I don’t want to miss too much class. You can try now,” Kristen said.

“Her office is just down the hall by one door,” the nurse said.

“I will get her then,” Jennifer said, she moved to go and saw that there were about twenty teens besides herself and Kristen in the room. Many of them were lying on the walls, floor and ceiling. ‘There are going to be some injuries unless they move closer to the floor,’ she thought. She looked at the nurse. “Could you tell those near the ceiling to move nearer to the floor? The fall could be nasty.”

“You are right!” the nurse said, as Jennifer made her way out of the office.

“But I have to wait for another patroller to return before I can go to the Palace-Tree. You will have to stay also.”

“I will stay, sir.”

“Good!”

The squirrels began to wait.

Mrs. Manson and Jennifer entered the nurse’s office, which was full of nauseous students, more of whom had arrived whilst Jennifer was getting the psychologist. Jennifer looked at her watch. Four minutes remained in the lunch period. She and the psychologist pushed their way through the crowd.

“Cool,” Kristen said, when they reached her.

“What is the problem that you had to get me for?” Mrs. Manson asked.

“First of all I was given a strange electric-like shock from Sandi Griffin!” Kristen said.

“What else happened?” Mrs. Manson asked.

Kristen explained further.

“What do you think, Margaret?” the nurse asked when Kristen finished her explanation.

“I am not sure. Has she tried speaking faster?”
“Yes, I have! And don’t talk like I am not here. I hate that!” Kristen said.

“Then it may not be psychosomatic. It could be a problem with the speech center,” the psychologist said.

Sandi raced after Tania, jumping off the walls and ceiling to gain speed. However, Tania was doing the same and keeping ahead.
‘At least she hasn’t wished herself elsewhere in the school,’ she thought. She didn’t want to use the locate ability again without eating something first.

Tania slowed down as she saw Elias enter the corridor ahead of her. ‘Cool, he can have it. It is too tempting,’ she thought.

Sandi saw Elias in the corridor ahead of Tania. ‘Of course, she and Elias are like, in collusion,’ she thought.

The bell rang and gravity was restored to the interior of the school buildings as the effects of Jennifer’s wish vanished.

Tania landed on her feet and walked up to Elias. “Here’s the emerald. But how did you know that it would end up where it did?”

“I didn’t. It was a lucky guess,” Elias said.

“I guess so, but you better go. Sandi is behind me,” Tania said.

Elias looked and saw Sandi running up. “Yikes!” He wished himself to class.

Sandi came to a stop when she saw Elias disappear. “That, like, makes absolutely no sense whatsoever,” she said.

“What?”
“Why would you like, give it to Elias because he asked?”

“I would be tempted to use it to cause trouble similar to that which has already been caused. Now I am thankful that I didn’t get the opportunity.”

“Right.”

“Now, if nothing else, I would like to get to class. Assuming that it will still be held of course.”

‘Of course, it is likely that the chaos has caused the classes to be cancelled,’ Sandi thought before heading to the class she was scheduled to go to.

However, after Tania had gone out of sight, Sandi realised that she was still covered in dried mud and pieces of the ‘jello wall’. ‘I have to have a shower before I return to class,’ she thought. She then headed in the direction of a shower instead.

In the Basement Server room, Ms. Li was frantically looking for the files which Cindy had moved.
“Tell me the name of that directory!” Ms. Li said.

“Not if you don’t tell us what you wanted to use the genie for,” Cindy said. ‘Why is she not telling us?’ she asked herself.

The bell rang and the gravity resumed, everyone in the room fell to the floor.

“Yeah, right! You are in no position to make demands, Ms. Brolsma,” Ms. Li said as she stood up again.

“She wouldn’t have been fiddling with the files on that computer if you weren’t so secretive,” Claire said.

“I will tell you, Claire, but not the students!”

Daria nodded and the Fashionable Trio and Joey surrounded Ms. Li and grabbed her. Joey and Quinn were on one side and Tiffany and Stacy on the other.

“Let go of me!” the principal stated. ‘Those ungrateful students, mistreating their principal in this way!’

Reveal your plan,” Quinn said.

“Or we will start stretching,” Joey said.

“You wouldn’t do that! At least Ms. Rowe wouldn’t! She is still in trouble for deceiving me earlier!”

“Oh no!” Stacy said, as she took her hands off Ms. Li and started crying. ‘She’s going to expel me!’
“Just for that, I would do it,” Quinn said.

Ms. Li could see that the younger Morgendorffer meant it.

Jane took Stacy’s place. “Stacy might not do it, but I would.” She glanced at Tiffany, who tightened her grip.

Ms. Li glared at the young artist, but remained silent.

Daria stepped closer. “Tell us, what were you planning to wish for?” ‘Not much chance, is there?’

Daria looked at the cheerleader. “Are you sure?” she asked. ‘She does look sure about it.’

“She looks like one of the bad guys in a war film whom are captured and won’t say anything, no matter what they try!” Brittany said.

‘That’s a disturbing concept,’ Daria thought as various images from the war films she had seen came into her mind. “OK. Here’s a deal. We will let you go and not try to tear you limb from limb if you give the following assurances.”

“And what are these assurances, Ms. Morgendorffer?”

“First: Stop trying to gain that emerald. You already have the school as a police state as it is. Second: Cindy gets off lightly for her tampering with the computer records. No expulsion or suspension. Put her on detention if you want to. Third: the same applies to Stacy. Fourth: we don’t mention what happened in this room to each other again.”

“And if I don’t give those assurances?” Ms. Li asked.

“We will try to tear you limb from limb,” Joey said.

“And I will go to the media about the purpose of this room. Once that happens, Anthony will tell the union,” Claire said.

“Fine! It’s probably not worth it due to the genie’s mischievousness anyway! But I will be keeping an eye on all of you!” she said.

Quinn, Tiffany, Jane and Joey let go.

Quinn went and comforted Stacy. “Are you ok?” Quinn asked.

“I’m better,” Stacy said.

“You need to go to class,” Claire said.

“If it’s still being held,” Jane said.

“I’m heading to my next class now. Though I am sure it will be disrupted somehow,” Claire said.

“I will go to class,” Jane said.

“So will I,” Daria said.

The students left the room. “It will take all next week to repair my office, and I have to locate the files that Ms. Brolsma misplaced!” Ms. Li complained. ‘I am going to be very busy!’ she thought.

“I think this is just the beginning. Who knows who has the emerald now,” Ms. Defoe said as she left the Server Room.

“I will find out, after I fix the mess that Ms. Brolsma made,” the principal said.

As the bell rang, and the gravity resumed, all of the students in the nurse’s office all collapsed upon each other.

“This is ridiculous,” Jennifer said.

“Now I can’t get to the phone!” Kristen said.

“We need to get everyone out,” Mrs. Manson said, as she pushed against the two sophomores and the nurse.

“I agree,” Kristen said. She then started climbing onto the group of people.

“Ouch!” Jennifer said as Kristen stepped on one of her hips.

“Sorry,” Kristen said. She managed to clamber onto the nurse’s desk. “This is going to take a while,” she said. She picked up the phone.

Sandi found a shower in the change rooms and began to wash herself and her clothes of all the muck that she had got on herself over lunch.

Elsewhere in the school, various classes started without many of the students who normally attended them. Some of the teachers weren’t present.

Throughout the school, confused students conferred with their friends about the events of the day.

Another patrolling squirrel arrived at the Glen Oaks post, bringing more news of unusual activity in Lawndale.

Captain Jaywi didn’t know what to make of it. “It may be linked to the genie, but then again, it may not,” he said.

“What are you going to do?” the other squirrel said.

“I am going to report it and another incident to the Emperor,” Captain Jaywi said. He filled the other squirrel in on the zero gravity at the school and then left him in charge of the outpost.

Both of Kristen’s parents arrived at the school twenty minutes after their daughter’s call. By then the nurse’s office was mostly empty.

“I suspect that she is in class, or hiding somewhere with that emerald,” Kristen said. ‘Either is possible,’ she thought.

“Yes. That is definitely something we need to find after we take you to the hospital,” her father said.

“You can look for it whilst I take her to the hospital,” his wife said.

Agent Leung looked at his wife. “Agreed,” he said.

“I will find Cindy,” Jennifer said.

“It would be better that you went to class,” Agent Bell said.

“I will tell Cindy, and Kelly,” Agent Leung said.

“If she is even at school today,” Kristen said.

Her parents looked at each other. They knew that their older daughter was a truant. “If she is here I will find her,” Agent Leung said.

“Let’s go,” Agent Bell said.

Kristen got up.

Sandi finished the shower and headed to class, after changing into a change of clothes she had in her locker.
“Zero gravity at the High School?” the Varmittan Emperor asked.

“Yes, your Majesty,” Captain Jaywi said.

“That is serious. We need to take drastic action!” the Emperor said.

“What sort of action?” Captain Jaywi asked.

“The humans cannot be trusted with the emerald! I will issue Order 303,” the Emperor said.

“Are you sure, Sire. It would be rather difficult to grab the emerald off a human, especially if they realise the full potential of it,” Captain Jaywi said.

“I will issue the order,” the Emperor said.

Captain Jaywi gulped. Order 303 stated that if any squirrel in Varmittan territory saw a human with a specific object, that they were to grab said object off the human... “Yes, Sire,” he said.

Agent Leung wandered the school, looking for the emerald and asking students about the Principal and the extra floor on the Science Block. He found Cindy in her Maths class.

“Mr. Leung, why are you here?” she asked.

“It has come to my attention that there is an emerald with unusual properties circulating around the school. Kristen mentioned that you had it last she knew.”

“I lost it,” Cindy said, and filled Agent Leung in on the events that happened in the Basement Server Room.

“Interesting, that confirms some of our suspicions about Ms. Li. I may also have to check that corridor.”

“I’m not in trouble for meddling with the Principal’s files?”

“I wouldn’t worry about it. If nothing else I now need to talk to the principal. I also have to tell you that Kristen has gone to the hospital.”

“Oh no! What happened?” Cindy exclaimed.

Agent Leung filled her in on what happened to Kristen.

“Oh. I will be at the hospital after school,” Cindy said.

“By the way, have you seen Kelly?” Agent Leung asked.

“I haven’t seen her all day, but all these events have been happening too,” Cindy said.

Agent Leung said his farewells and Cindy went back into the Maths class. He went towards the Basement Server Room.

(Both Elias and Sandi were in a different Maths class so the Agent didn’t talk to them...)

Lawndale Offices of Vitale, Davis, Horowitz, Rhiordan, Schrechter and Schrechter 3:15
Eric entered Helen’s office. “Helen, you are able to take the time off to talk to the other parents regarding that High School issue,” he said.

“Very good. When can I take the time off?” Helen said.

“Immediately, for the next hour and fifteen minutes,” Eric said. He left the office.

Helen turned to her secretary. “Marianne, hold any calls until I come back. It is likely I may be late. But I will be back at 4:50 at the latest,” she said.

“Yes, Helen,” Marianne said timidly.

Helen put some of her paperwork in her briefcase and left the office.

When Eric returned to his office he went to his phone and pressed the first speed dial option (The one marked with a large V). “Yes, sir, Mrs. Morgendorffer has left,” he said after the call was answered.

“Thankyou, sir,” he said and hung up, visibly sweating. Dealing with the Senior Partner was never easy.

The Senior Partner placed the phone back in its cradle. “Asshat!” he said.

He walked from the large desk over to the large window which looked out over Lawndale. He took a puff from his genuine Cuban cigar.
“So, Jean! We meet again!” Jim Vitale then smiled as he remembered his previous meeting with the genie...

When the final bell of the day sounded, Elias quickly left his Maths class, and ran out of the building.

“First of all, I will call home, tell Mom that I will be late,” he said. He ran across the road, not noticing that Sandi had followed him from the classroom...

‘There he is!’ Sandi thought as she watched Elias run across the street from the front door of the school. ‘You can’t, like, get away from me that easily.’ She then followed him across the street...

As she exited the school building, Quinn saw Sandi running after Elias down the street. ‘That’s not good,’ she thought. She knew that Elias had the emerald (having seen him with it when she got to class). She looked back, but Stacy, Tiffany, Daria, Jane or anyone else involved in the events earlier in the day were not around. “I guess it’s up to me,’ she said with a nervous laugh. She then followed after Sandi.

“Like, come back here, Elias!”

Elias turned to find Sandi close behind him! “Eep!” ‘How could she sneak up like that!’ he wondered.

“I’ll, like, get the emerald back.”

“Not if I wish you elsewhere in Lawndale!”

“Yeah Right!” Sandi then charged.

“I wish that Sandi would go to Main Street, right now!” Elias wished.

“No!” Sandi said, as she vanished with the wish granting sound.

“That was close,” Elias said.

He then stopped and looked back towards the school. He saw Dennis Monk, a well known troublemaker, coming up to him (but not Quinn, who was behind a tree at that moment). ‘I hope he didn’t see Sandi disappear!’

“Elias Howarth, where are you off to?” Dennis asked as he came up to Elias.

“To Main Street,” Elias responded.

“Can I come with you?” Dennis asked.

‘That is one way to watch him,’ Elias thought. “Sure, you can. Just don’t do anything silly,’ he said.

“Right...” Dennis said.

Quinn arrived at that moment. “Where are you going with Dennis, Elias?” she asked.

“We’re going to Main Street,” Elias said.

Quinn walked closer to Elias and whispered in his ear. “Make sure that he doesn’t get the emerald, Elias!”

That surprised Elias. He whispered in Quinn’s ear thus; “How did you know?”

Sandi appeared in Main Street, outside Drugs ‘n’ Stuff.
“Great! Now, like, I have to get back to Lawndale High before Elias can get somewhere I can’t find him!”
She started running in the direction of Lawndale High, hoping to intercept Elias. She definitely wanted the emerald back.

Agent Leung entered the Basement Server Room. “Principal Angela Li, are you in here?” he asked.

“How did you know that I was here?” the principal asked as she turned from the computer.

“A student said that you would be here,” the agent said.

“So much for Ms. Morgendorffer’s deal!”

“What sort of deal was this?”

The principal told the agent about the deal Daria had made with her.

“It’s a good deal, but I wouldn’t say that the deal is off because one of students told me of what went on here. The fourth part didn’t preclude the students telling others of the events.”

“Stupid ‘to each other’ clause!” the principal said.

“Now, tell me everything you know about the emerald and the events of the last two days,” Agent Leung said.

The Principal began to tell the Agent most of what she knew of the emerald.

Quinn saw that she, Elias and Dennis were going in the wrong direction – towards the eastern part of Lawndale. “Elias, I thought we’re going to Main Street?” she asked.

“We are going the long way, along Henderson Street, across the Creek on the Lawndale Bridge. Then along Adams Street, back across the Creek on the Jefferson Bridge, we then go along Fourth Street to Dega Street, then down to Main Street. Whereas Sandi would be taking the more direct route,” Elias said.

Quinn thought for a moment. “That is a great idea, Elias. She wouldn’t be able to find us,” she said.

“I hope so,” Elias said as he lead the way towards the Lawndale Creek.

“Thank you for that information, Ms. Li,” Agent Leung said when the principal had told her the information.

“What now?” Angela asked.

“Nothing, I don’t have a warrant to search your computer there. Now I have see Kristen in the hospital, good day!”

“She’s in the hospital!”

“Yes. But the circumstances are unclear. It had nothing to do with the safety of the school buildings,” the agent said as he left.

Ms. Li was shaking in her boots. The situation was completely out of her control...

At the Settlement Restaurant, Helen met two of the parents she had called during the day. “Is this all?” she asked.

“Apparently, it is!” Elizabeth Rowe said.

“What is this about a genie?” Frances Blum-Deckler asked.

“We will wait for more to arrive before filling you in,” Helen said.

Agent Leung searched the corridor where Cindy had lost the emerald before leaving the school.

Cindy arrived at the Cedars of Lawndale hospital. “I am here to see Kristen Leung-Bell,” she said.

The nurse on duty gave her directions.

“Thank you,” Cindy said.

“Helen Morgendorffer?” Steve Taylor asked as he came up to the table.

“That is me,” Helen said.

“You’re Brittany’s father, aren’t you?” Elizabeth asked.

“I am, but my daughter isn’t the reason we’re here,” Steve said.

“Leave her out of this,” Frances said.

“As if your daughter isn’t much better as a role model for Anastasia!” Elizabeth said.

“Don’t criticise Tiffany!” Frances exclaimed.

“Ladies!” Helen projected. Both Elizabeth and Frances stopped before they could tear into each other and turned to the Lawyer.

“Now, have just over an hour before I have to go back to work and I would like to have something constructive arranged in that time,” Helen said.

“Sorry,” Frances said.

Elizabeth huffed. “I guess so, I’m sorry. We shouldn’t really be fighting, what with that genie still on the loose,” she said.

“No, but Cindy mentioned that she thinks that Sandi mentioned that Elias has the emerald,” Stacy said.

“Elias?” Daria asked.

“Elias Howarth, he lives out of town, in a village almost halfway between here and Oakwood,” Stacy said.

“So he could have gone home?” Jane asked.

“Maybeee,” Tiffany said.

“It’s a possibility. But even if he didn’t leave Lawndale he could be anywhere!” Stacy said.

“We should give it a try!” Jane said.

“Or just listen to the radio. If something unusual happens it may be reported,” Daria said.

“Aren’t you forgetting something?” Jeffy asked.

“What?” Daria asked.

“Where’s Jean?” Jeffy asked.

“That’s a good question,” Daria said.

“Jean was in class until Mr. Leung came in. She left whilst he was interviewing Cindy,” Stacy said.

“Mr. Leung?” Jane asked.

“Kristen’s father,” Stacy said.

“Kristen?” Daria asked.

“She is a Goth in our grade,” Stacy said.

“The way she dresses, sooooo wrooong,” Tiffany said.

Daria glared at Tiffany for a second before asking Stacy to continue.

“She is Cindy’s best friend. She also has black hair and has dyed her bangs red,” Stacy said.

“I have seen someone meeting that description around school and at the Zon,” Daria said.

“Right, what about Jean. Do we look for her too?” Jane asked.

“I guess so. She also could be anywhere,” Daria said.

“We could look for all of them,” Joey suggested.

“I agree,” Stacy said.

Daria looked around. She saw that most of the students had already left the school. There was no one to ask about what happened.

After a short time of discussion, it was agreed that Daria, Jane and Stacy would go in Trent’s car and Jeffy, Joey and Tiffany in Jeffy’s car. They also agreed to meet at the Morgendorffers at 5:00.

Helen saw Andrew Landon walk towards the group of parents.“Hi, Helen, what is this all about? You were rather hush-hush on the phone,” he said.

“Something not easily believable,” Helen said.

“You mean that there is something to those crazy rumours that Jodie was talking about?” Andrew asked.

“That probably wouldn’t be the half of it,” Helen said.

“I would have thought it crazy, if Liz here didn’t believe it herself,” Steve said.

“Steven Taylor! I have told you a million times! I prefer my full name!” Elizabeth shouted.

“Sorry!” Steve said.

Elizabeth turned to Andrew; “Anyhow, last night, Anastasia told me the whole story about what happened at the school yesterday. Suffice it to say that whatever Jodie told you was at least part of the truth,” she said.

“And we don’t know what may have happened today,” Helen said.

“There is one way to find out,” Andrew said as he sat down and took out his cell phone.

“Not really using it. Just keeping it out of the hands of evil,” Elias said.

“Hands of evil?” Quinn asked.

“Yeah, those who would use it for their own ends, and for the detriment of others,” Elias said.

“Detriment?” Quinn asked, not sure what the word meant (she knew what the rest of what he said meant though).

Elias sighed; “Causing of harm to others,” he said.

“Oh yeah, that would certainly be evil,” Quinn said, with a nervous laugh.

“Definitely,” Elias said. He then noticed a letter on the road and picked it up.

“What does it say?” Quinn asked, when he had picked it up.

“It says that someone is in trouble on the east side of the Creek, halfway down Adams Street,” Elias said.

“That’s weird, why leave a letter on the street, instead of going to the cops?” Quinn asked.

“That is a good point. I guess we would find out when we get there,” Elias said.

‘I hope so,’ Dennis thought.

“I guess so,” Quinn said.

Jodie parked her car outside the Settlement.

“Are you going to be long?” Mack asked.

“It probably going to be an hour or more,” Jodie said as she got out of the car.

“I will come in with you,” Mack said.

“OK,” Jodie said.

A few more parents had arrived at the restaurant after Andrew had called Jodie. There were a couple of squabbles occurring as Jodie and Mack walked up. Helen and Andrew were trying to referee while Elizabeth just sat there glaring at the combatants.

“Hi,” Jodie said.

Almost immediately the squabbles stopped.

“Thank God!” Helen said.

Jodie sat down next to her father. “You won’t be so thankful when you hear what happened at school today,” she said.

“Oh my!” Helen said when she noticed the look on Jodie’s face.

“A lot of stuff happened,” Jodie said with a Daria-like deadpan.

“You want me to tell them?” Mack asked.

“I will,” Jodie said.

“Go on,” Helen said.

“For starters, Sandi no longer has the emerald.”

“Then who has it?” Elizabeth asked harshly.

“I don’t know, Mrs. Rowe, but I did hear that someone named Elias Howarth may have it,” Jodie said.

“Continue!” Elizabeth said.

“Ok, go on,” Steve said.

“Right, it started before homeroom when Torii challenged Sandi for the emerald and Andrea defended her,” Jodie began.

Daria, Jane and Stacy arrived at the Pizza King.
“Why are we here?” Stacy asked.

“We usually hang out here after school,” Jane said.

“The Pizza’s are delicious,” Daria said, with a hint of her usual Mona Lisa smile.

“And fattening!” Stacy said.

“You can have a cheeseless if you want,” Daria said.

“Good,” Stacy said, as she tried to relax.

“You can also ask the other patrons here whether they had seen Quin, Sandi or Elias after they had left school,” Daria said.

“Why me?” Stacy asked.

“You’re more social than us,” Jane said.

“Actually, I’m shy. I didn’t have any close friends until middle school,” Stacy said, close to tears.

“Ok. I’ll ask,” Jane said.

“I’ll order the Pizzas,” Daria said.

Stacy sat down at a vacant table and tried to make more sense of the previous 30 hours than she had already...

Agent Leung entered his daughter’s hospital room. His wife and a doctor came over to him. “I’m Dr. Phillips; we have done some tests, but we are still uncertain as to what the cause of your daughter’s condition is.”

“So she’s still talking slowly?” Agent Leung said.

“Yes, and she is quite self conscious about it,” Dr. Phillips said.

“I knew that she would be,” Agent Bell said. That was their younger daughter to a tee.

“Thank you, Doctor.” Agent Leung said. He went over to where Cindy was sitting by Kristen’s bedside.
“How are you holding up?” he asked.

“I’m fine,” Cindy said.

“As well as can be expected, I hope that this problem will go away on its own!” Kristen said trying to speak as quickly as possible (missing some phonemes).

“Ok, you can go to the library and ask any cute boys there to do the research for you. I may take you to Chez Pierre later,” Elias said.

Quinn thought. “That’s a good idea, Elias. A bargain worthy of Daria,” she said with a nervous laugh.

She turned to go. She realised something. She asked Elias how she was to tell him what her helpers found.

Elias said that he would be by later, but said that he would be at the second hand bookstore.

Quinn then said goodbye and went towards the older public library in Third Street.

Soon, Elias and Dennis parted ways, when Elias told Dennis of the emerald. Dennis reacted as Elias had expected. He demanded the emerald for himself, and Elias wished himself to the Lawndale Second Hand Books store. He wasn’t to know what Dennis was planning...

Quinn arrived at the library. She quickly found her first victim, or rather, volunteer. “Hi, have you heard of the events at Lawndale High today?”

“I have heard of something that happened there yesterday,” the eighth grader said.

“Close enough. Would you like to look in the history books for any mention of genies?” Quinn asked, her charm at full intensity.

“Sure. What’s your name?”

“Quinn.”

The eighth grader went towards the 900 section of the Non-Fiction section.

Quinn smiled and began looking for another boy to ask.

Dennis had heard where Elias had wished himself to. He arrived at the Lawndale Second Hand Books store at 4:13.

He entered the store and quickly found Elias. “Give me that emerald, Elias Howarth!”

“No, Dennis!” Elias said.

Dennis reached, and grabbed the emerald. He quickly removed the necklace from around Elias’s neck, and then bolted from the store. Elias bolted after him.

Dennis ran out onto the street. “I wish that a tornado would form on Sloane Hill and move in this direction!”

“No!” Elias shouted.

The wish granting sound was heard. Dennis smiled a wicked smile and laughed manically as the ripples generated by the emerald emanated into the sky and towards Sloane Hill.

The cumulonimbus clouds that had formed from Tiffany’s wish at recess had hung over the town all day. With Dennis’s wish they grew denser and a funnel formed...

“...We interrupt our usual programming to bring news of a tornado sighting to the southeast of Lawndale...”

At the Pizza King, Scarlett froze in the middle of a sentence. “What?” Tananda asked.

“Something has just happened,” Scarlett said.

“What something?” Stacy asked.

“I don’t know, but it’s something rather bad,” Scarlett said.

Daria rolled her eyes.

“You may scoff, Daria, but something has happened!” Tananda stated.

“Are you sure?” Daria asked. She may have been involved in strange events at school that day, but she was sceptical about anything else supernatural.

“I don’t know where to begin, but if Scarlett says that something bad is happening, I know that something is going on,” Tananda said vehemently.

“Um, guys,” Jane said nervously from where she stood near the window.

“What is it, Jane?” Daria asked as she got up.

“Look at that!” Jane said, pointing in the distance.
The group all ran over to the windows. Daria was the first to notice the funnel.

‘Uh oh!”

“Oh no!” Stacy said, and fainted. Tananda caught her as she fell.

“Yes, that’s the bad thing!” Scarlett said, with her eyes wide.

“There is nothing we can do against that!” Tananda said.

“And Quinn may be in the middle of it!” Daria said.

“I agree,” Tom said.

Jane turned to Tananda. “There is something we can do about it!” she said.

“You mean find the emerald and unwish it?” Tananda asked.

“Um, yeah,” Jane said.

“That is a long shot, Jane. We still don’t know where the emerald is. Nor do we know where, Jean, Quinn, Sandi or Elias are,” Daria said.

“Good point,” Jane said.

“Guys,” Scarlett said.

“Going in the direction of that tornado would not be a good idea,” Tananda said as she placed Stacy onto a pair of seats.

“That’s obvious,” Tom said.

“Guys!”Scarlett said, louder than before.

“Yeah?” Daria said, turning back.

“The tornado is coming in this direction!” Scarlett said.

“Uh oh!” Jane said.

“Right, we may need to go somewhere else!” Tananda suggested.

“My place?” Jane suggested.

“I guess so,” Daria said.

“Let’s go,” Tom said.

They quickly arranged to leave, with Scarlett and Tananda carrying Stacy to Trent’s car.

The Settlement
The parents were continuing to discuss their plans when a text message came to Andrew Landon’s cell phone.

Andrew looked at it.

From: LANDON ENGINEERING MAINFR41M

WLND Report; Tornado sighted south east of Lawndale. It is moving in the direction of the centre of town.

“What is it, Dad?” Jodie asked, seeing the concern on her father’s face.

Andrew cleared his throat. “According to the news, there is a tornado coming!”

“Tornado!?” Helen stated. ‘Who would wish for something like that!?’

Almost immediately the parents began to run around in panic.

Jodie put her hand to her forehead. ‘That’s great! The adults are panicking!’

“Tornaaado?” Tiffany said, confused. Then she realised “Oooh nooo! Some one wiiishing for thaaat? Sooo wrong!”

“Oh, Anastasia, why didn’t I let you get a cell phone? Where are you? Where are you? Where are you?” Elizabeth said, as she ran about in panic.

Helen, however, was not so panicked. “Elizabeth, calm down!” She could see that her daughter’s friend’s mother was not listening, so she grabbed her shoulders and shook her slightly. “Elizabeth, get a hold of yourself!”

The shaking brought Elizabeth out of her panic. “Thanks, Helen. I needed that, but I don’t know where Anastasia is!”

“I’m sure Daria has the sense to stay away from the Tornado,” Helen said.

“I hope so,” Elizabeth said. “I mean, I all know about Daria is that Quinn thinks she’s weird, which could mean anything.”

“Yes,” Helen said, sighing.

Morgendorffer Consulting
Jake Morgendorffer was bored, he had finished his latest proposal for one of his clients an hour before, and was playing two deck Solitaire.

Then the news about the tornado came onto the radio. “Gaaggghh, Tornado! Here? But Lawndale is nowhere near Tornado Alley!”

He ran to the window and looked out. He saw the funnel in the distance.

He then went to the phone and dialled his wife’s cell number.

Cedars of Lawndale
“That’s not good,” Jennifer said when she heard the radio.
Immediately, both Agent’s beepers beeped. Agent Bell turned to her daughter. “I’m afraid I have to go, honey,” she said.

“I understand,” Kristen said.

“We’ll be back as soon as we can,” Agent Leung said. Both kissed their daughter on the cheek before waving and heading out.

“I’m not sure what they can do about the tornado,” Kristen murmured.

“You want me to call your brother?” Jennifer asked.

“Sure,” Kristen said.

Cindy moved closer as Jennifer left to find a payphone. “I hope it isn’t anywhere near the hospital,” she said.

“The radio said, the south east, so I guess not,” Kristen said.

“Yeah,” Cindy said.

Varmittan Palace-Tree
“Tornado?” the Emporer asked.

“Yes, Sire, a tornado. It is approaching the centre of Lawndale from the south-east.”

The Emperor rose from his throne and walked to the edge of the Palace-Tree’s mid-canopy viewing deck. From that vantage-point he could see the supercell in the distance, although not the tornado itself. “I hope that this is unrelated to the genie issue,” he said.

“The likelihood of that would be low, Sire.”

“I’m aware of that!”

Jean was at the Griffin residence having an afternoon snack. She noticed the emerald granting Dennis’s wish in her absence. ‘That’s not good, Dennis Monk!’ she thought. She decided to remain where she was for the time being though.

She went upstairs to the guest room, where she had slept the night before, and looked to the east. Over the roof of one of the neighbouring houses (she noticed the 513 on the mailbox), she saw the funnel. ‘Cannot be more than an F1,’ she thought, thankful that Dennis didn’t specify intensity. She then saw Linda pull into the driveway. Something seemed to be happening.

Jean came down the stairs as Linda opened the door. “Jean, do you know if Sandi is here? There is a report about a tornado.”

“I don’t know where she is. She could be anywhere in Lawndale. But what about Sam and Chris?”

“They are at friend’s houses for the afternoon, in areas of Lawndale away from where the tornado appears to be going. I have to look for Sandi,” Linda said with slight concern for her daughter.

“That would be a good idea,” Jean said.

Linda just stared at Jean briefly before going upstairs. She soon came down and left in a rush. ‘I guess that I have the house to myself,’ she thought.